{"id":783103,"date":"2026-02-23T06:31:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/783103\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T06:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:31:21","slug":"irelands-memorable-twickenham-win-sets-up-remaining-home-games-against-wales-and-scotland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/783103\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s memorable Twickenham win sets up remaining home games against Wales and Scotland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s<\/a> record-breaking storming of English<\/a> rugby\u2019s citadel on Saturday has set up their concluding Six Nations<\/a> home games against Wales and Scotland nicely. Win the first of those games next Friday week and at the very least that would ensure a Triple Crown shoot-out with the Scots on the final Saturday, March 14th.<\/p>\n

The day after Ireland host Wales, Scotland are at home to France in a clash between the top two after three rounds. A Scottish win would blow the title race wide open, but if France win with a bonus point, they will retain their title in advance of setting up a tilt at the Grand Slam at home to England in the Super Saturday finale.<\/p>\n

This follows France\u2019s 33-8 win over Italy in Lille on Sunday, which has taken them to 15 points. A fourth bonus-point win would thus put them on 20 and as Ireland sit on nine points, the maximum they can obtain is 19.<\/p>\n

That will not dampen the spirits of the estimated 20,000-plus Green Army which had Twickenham to themselves when the players returned to the pitch after Saturday\u2019s 42-21 victory, their biggest away win over England.<\/p>\n

Neither did the rain, which thankfully didn\u2019t hit southwest London until a post-match downpour, judging by the bars of Richmond and elsewhere. The ex-pats had Sunday to either recover or continue their celebrations in advance of returning to work on Monday with their heads high.<\/p>\n

Ireland may not have the best home fans in the world, but they have the best away fans and they witnessed a statement win, no doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully that puts a bit of lead in everyone\u2019s pencil for the Welsh game and then we know how big the Scotland game is going to be with everything that is coming around the corner,\u201d said Andy Farrell<\/a>, with next year\u2019s World Cup<\/a> pool meeting in mind.<\/p>\n

Farrell was especially pleased with his team\u2019s \u201cunstructured stuff\u201d and three of Ireland\u2019s five tries emanated from broken play or transition, the clearest sign yet that he is building a new team as opposed to re-invoking the side of 2022\/23.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jamison Gibson-Park celebrates scoring a try against England. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s faith in his proven Test match animals was vindicated, and he added: \u201cCaelan [Doris] was back to his best, Joe McCarthy was outstanding. Josh [van der Flier] was immense in that first half with his line running and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said before the game, big-game players turn up and make big team performances happen. They set great examples, but for Rob Baloucoune to come here and do that \u2013 you know you\u2019re on for a good day when he\u2019s got a poach, a turnover ball. Just his belief to take people on, and for Stu [McCloskey] to dominate at this type of level, it was a joy to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish coaches were, it seemed, more animated than normal (most likely Johnny Sexton is the cause of this), and situated in front of the Vips made for some memorable Kodak moments. Nothing evidently pleased Farrell more than McCloskey leading a posse of three players to chase down Marcus Smith in the 73rd minute with the game long won.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he didn\u2019t do that on Tuesday,\u201d Farrell revealed, \u201cand we highlighted it and there\u2019s a few others did. He did it on Wednesday, and it just shows, you prepare properly and then it stands to you on a weekend. Those types of things matter more than scoring tries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s vibrant heartbeat was Jamison Gibson-Park, whom Farrell agreed may have benefited from only playing the final half-hour against Italy a week previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s an interesting stat for you as far as all the GPS scores. I try not to get too carried away with it, but when he came on the field last week, our intensity grew by 30 per cent. The ball was quicker by 30 per cent and that\u2019s what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting Gibson-Park\u2019s running threat, Farrell added: \u201cOnce he\u2019s that threat, everyone\u2019s worried about that. He\u2019s so strong in and around all that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I said I thought our broken-field play was so good. We were at our best when there was a pick-and-go and there was an offload, or when Jamison was scooting doing the short side. It\u2019s very pleasing because that\u2019s where we need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jamie Osborne goes over for a try against England. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

Farrell remains sanguine about the good and the bad days since the last World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it all along, the squad, it\u2019s at where it\u2019s at, and it\u2019s always going to be at different levels to where it\u2019s been in the past or whatever, because that\u2019s just life, things move on. But it\u2019s about the learnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking this morning, probably the three most respected players that I know in Irish rugby, Johnny Sexton, Drico [Brian O\u2019Driscoll] and Paulie [O\u2019Connell], I think Drico played for 15 years and won two [Six Nations]. I think Paulie played for 14 years and won three. Johnny played for 13 years in this competition and won four.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo have a look at all the ones that they\u2019ve not won. It\u2019s because the group is always transitioning and learning. And, honestly, that\u2019s why genuinely I didn\u2019t care whether we won or lost, whether we just grew as a group.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we know what we\u2019re trying to get to as a group. And it doesn\u2019t always translate, because people have to feel the ups and downs of international rugby to learn and grow from it. So that\u2019s the best part of it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hence, statement win or not, Farrell was keen to view it [through] the prism of the 18-month journey to the next World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"\"How might Ireland pull off a Twickenham upset?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the strength of any team should be stronger than any individual\u2019s belief of what they think they can get to. That\u2019s what a proper team is. So therefore, the potential in the squad is huge. I believe that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys can say it\u2019s ageing, or we\u2019re missing people and they\u2019re injured and all that stuff. But that doesn\u2019t matter … as long as we\u2019re pushing forward and doing ourselves proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, over the next 18 months, I think there\u2019s plenty of lessons that we can learn and we will do. A tough couple of games coming up, a tough summer, and all that will stand to us. We want to be at our best in 18 months\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s record-breaking storming of English rugby\u2019s citadel on Saturday has set up their concluding Six Nations home games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5010],"tags":[6162,748,4211,4884,4207,4209,26349,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-783103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wales","tag-andy-farrell","tag-britain","tag-england-rugby","tag-great-britain","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-steve-borthwick","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116118545233730199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}