The curious Andy Farrell claim about 'fantastic side' England

Ireland boss Andy Farrell has shared his thoughts on Steve Borthwick’s England two days out from Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash at Twickenham.

The English saw their rare unbeaten start to the championship blown to smithereens in Scotland the last day and they now face the daunting prospect of hosting the back-to-back title-chasing Irish in London.

Farrell’s son Owen was England’s skipper for the recent Rugby World Cup but he has since taken a Test rugby sabbatical and wasn’t in the firing line when Borthwick’s side were heavily criticised for the meek manner of their round three surrender on February 24 at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Despite a bronze medal finish at France 2023, England fans are fearing that Borthwick isn’t the head coach capable of taking the team forward in the long run, and his reputation was hugely dented by the Scottish loss.

Farrell, though, hasn’t tuned into this negativity, claiming instead that England are a dangerous opponent for Grand Slam-chasing Ireland. “I don’t get involved with the criticism at all,” he said at an airport hotel media briefing on Thursday in Dublin before he flew to London with his team.

“I don’t look at that. I look at the individuals, the way that they are playing, the coaching staff that they have got, the plan that they have got.

“I know that they have got a fantastic side that is going to be preparing to give it everything they have got at the weekend so that makes them unbelievably dangerous. We just prepare for them to be at their best and if that is the case it’s going to be one hell of a battle.”

What particular threat does he worry about? “All of it. This is why I constantly say everyone loves the Six Nations so much because it changes week on week.

"Scotland were unbelievably unlucky for all sorts of reasons in not getting over the line against France. I’m sure that concentrates the mind in the next two weeks leading up to the England game.

“I have no doubt that England would have loved to put their best performance out against Scotland and come away with a victory, which is unbelievably hard to do, but I have no doubt that over the last two weeks that (loss) concentrates their mind to have another chance to have a crack at us.

“So you expect them to be at their best and if they are at their best they are going to be as hard as anyone in world rugby to beat.”

Despite England copping red cards in the first half of their two most recent championship meetings with Ireland, it took Farrell’s team a considerable time to make that advantage pay as they repeatedly got bogged down at the ruck.

Will slow ball be a factor in this weekend’s renewal? “I’m not Mystic Meg, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he chuckled. “England had a say in how we performed that day. You take every game at its own course really and judge it.

“England did very well at slowing us down last year, a lot of stoppages within the game. It wasn’t just errors. The game was slow. Whether that is a tactic of theirs I don’t know, but we will have to expect more of the same I would have thought.

“We’ll take each minute as it comes. That’s the nature of the game. That was a year ago and you go back a couple of weeks against Wales, we want to do better than that as well so it’s always going to be that case.”

An ex-England midfielder as a player, ex-rugby league great Farrell coached as an assistant under Stuart Lancaster between 2012 and 2015 before moving across the Irish Sea the following year to coach the defence for Joe Schmidt.

He then became head coach for the 2020 Six Nations yet every time he goes back to Twickenham with Ireland, he is asked if the fixture means more to him given his background in the game. The same happened again in Dublin before he headed to the airport.

“I get asked this every time I go back to Twickenham and I have been back quite a bit now. It’s no different to any other game. We and certainly I tend to concentrate on just the week ahead and this game is no more important than the first game in Marseille or more important than the Italy game at home or Wales at home.

“It’s another chance for us to go out there and show the best of ourselves albeit a tough old task going to Twickenham. Everyone knows that it’s a tough place to go and get a victory but that is the challenge that is in front of us every week.”