Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton, Scotland playmaker Finn Russell and Wales’ Warren Gatland are just some of the names in the news this week…
Sky Sports looks at all the camps ahead of the weekend’s Six Nations Round 2 encounters, as Ireland host France, Scotland welcome Wales, and England face Italy…
Farrell hopes for Ireland crowd inspiration vs unchanged France
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell hopes a partisan Dublin crowd can turn the tables on France and drag Ireland through difficult moments during Saturday’s potential Six Nations title decider.
Farrell’s men felt the full force of a raucous Stade de France this time last year as French fans spurred on their side to a thrilling 30-24 win which paved the way for Grand Slam glory.
A sold-out Aviva Stadium awaits Les Bleus this weekend when the world’s top two teams collide in a mouth-watering encounter.
The Aviva Stadium in Dublin is set-up for a cracking atmosphere as Ireland host France
Farrell, whose side were impressive 34-10 winners vs Wales in Cardiff last week, has urged home supporters to help Ireland end a three-match losing streak against Fabien Galthie’s in-form visitors but acknowledges his players are responsible for igniting the atmosphere on the terraces.
“Yeah, 100 per cent [we need to bring the crowd into the game],” he said. “It’s a package, isn’t it?
“It’s everyone who comes to the game buying into it and we’re a part of that package. Obviously everyone wants to start well and start strongly, and it’s something that we’ve done pretty well.
“But things ain’t going to go all according to plan when two good teams are going at it.
“So therefore it isn’t just getting them behind us and getting excited through the good times, it’s also making sure that the fans feel where we’re at in the game as well and try and drag us through because it’s certainly what our players felt last year in France.”
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Reflecting on Ireland’s winning start to the Six Nations against Wales, Andy Farrell says he was delighted
Ireland’s plans have been disrupted by the loss of influential hooker Dan Sheehan to a hamstring issue, resulting in a start for Ulster’s Rob Herring.
Sheehan is the fourth Irish player to have injured that specific muscle in the past fortnight following similar problems for Ronan Kelleher, who will be back on the bench on Saturday, Cian Healy and Jamison Gibson-Park.
Farrell’s medical team are investigating a possible link between the causes of the injuries.
“When you’ve four of something that’s pretty similar there’s a chance that there’s a theme there,” he said.
“So it’s something that we’re looking into obviously, but it’s full steam ahead as far as the job in hand from here on in for us.”
Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan will miss Saturday’s clash with France due to a hamstring injury
France extended their winning run to 14 games with a stuttering 29-24 victory over Italy on the opening weekend.
Farrell, who is braced for the unchanged World Cup hosts to be back at their formidable best, believes his team have improved since the sides met 12 months ago.
“We’ll see – we certainly think we have,” he said. “We nearly got there in Paris last year but nearly is not quite good enough, so therefore lessons learned. Transferring that to the field is obviously the aim but the French are going to have a big say in that as well. I expect France to be at their best.”
Team News
Ireland: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 James Lowe, 10 Johnny Sexton (c), 9 Conor Murray; 1 Andrew Porter, 2 Rob Herring, 3 Finlay Bealham, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 5 James Ryan, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Caelan Doris.
Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Tom O’Toole, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Bundee Aki.
France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Ethan Dumortier, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont (c); 1 Cyril Baille, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Uini Atonio, 4 Thibaud Flament, 5 Paul Willemse, 6 Anthony Jelonch, 7 Charles Ollivon, 8 Gregory Alldritt.
Replacements: 16 Gaetan Barlot, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sipili Falatea, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Francois Cros, 21 Sekou Macalou, 22 Baptiste Couilloud, 23 Matthieu Jalibert.
Gatland plumps for youth and wary of “excellent” Russell | Townsend: Calcutta Cup victors deserve another shot
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has hailed Scotland star Finn Russell ahead of Saturday’s clash at Murrayfield, clearly eyeing the playmaker as a man to look out for.
Russell and Scotland will face a much-changed Wales team after Gatland left British and Irish Lions trio Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau out of his starting XV.
Gatland has insisted that selection was not a knee-jerk reaction to a 34-10 home defeat against Ireland as he runs the rule over inexperienced World Cup hopefuls like Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza and Tommy Reffell.
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Wales head coach Warren Gatland insists there were plenty of positives to take despite their defeat to Ireland
“There is no doubt he [Russell] has matured incredibly as a player. I think in the past, people would call him a maverick. I am not quite sure that tag is applicable at the moment,” Gatland said.
“I just think with that maturity in his game-management, what he has learnt in his attacking game and kicking game, I think he has got an incredible balance.
“What I love about him is that he plays with a smile on his face. He is pretty relaxed in the way that he plays. He is pretty key for them, he is on top of his form and he was excellent for them last week.”
Scotland have never won their opening two games of a Six Nations campaign, while recent home fortunes against Wales show six defeats from the last seven meetings.
Gatland added: “We have realised we’ve got a bit of a disparity between the experience and the inexperience in the squad.
“How do we get these youngsters some game-time and get them up to speed? That is by playing international rugby. There hasn’t been any change in our thinking.
Wales stalwart Alun Wyn Jones has been dropped, as have experienced pair Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau
“There is definitely some huge talent there at the moment, and we need to find ways to give them opportunities to get that experience.
“There has been no knee-jerk reaction, because this has been part of the plan right from day one. I have spoken about it as well and said we need to find out about some of these youngsters. It is about finding the right mix.”
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has kept faith with the majority of his Calcutta Cup victors but warned them they will need to improve.
There will be just one change to the XV that won 29-23 away to England on Saturday, with Glasgow prop Zander Fagerson replacing 36-year-old WP Nel after more than two months out with a hamstring injury.
Despite the intoxicating nature of last weekend’s win, Townsend explained that his team selection for the visit of the Welsh was not straightforward.
“No, it wasn’t,” he said. “We actually delayed the (internal) team announcement because we had a few selections that we had to sleep on. I believe they’ve earned the right to get a second opportunity to build on that win but the performance wasn’t at our best level.
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Gregor Townsend reflects on his Scotland squad selection to face Wales
“We’ve got players on the bench and of the 23 who are quality players that have played very well for us in the past or are itching for that opportunity, so it wasn’t an easy decision, but these guys now have the opportunity to build on last week.
“There’s been an edge to training, like there was last week. As a coach, I see other things in meetings and how the players talk to each other and it all seems like their focus is on improving this week, which is all you can ask for.
“We have to improve from what we did last week because in large parts of that game, we weren’t at our best. I saw better performances in Argentina in the summer and in our games in November.
“The good thing was we took our opportunities and we showed resilience into that final quarter and that makes us tough to beat. But we’re not at our potential, and that’s what we’re striving towards.”
Team News
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White; 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 George Turner, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Jamie Ritchie (c), 7 Luke Crosbie, 8 Matt Fagerson
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 WP Nel, 19 Jonny Gray, 20 Jack Dempsey, 21 George Horne, 22 Blair Kinghorn, 23 Chris Harris.
Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Josh Adams, 13 George North, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Tomos Williams, 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens (c), 3 Dillon Lewis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Adam Beard, 6 Christ Tshiunza, 7 Tommy Reffell, 8 Jac Morgan.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Rhys Carre, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Rhys Davies, 20 Taulupe Faletau, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Alex Cuthbert.
Cohen: England have a lot of work to do | Greenwood: It’s tough times; England need to start making progress
This week’s Sunday clash sees England welcome Italy, intent on making amends for a morale-hitting Twickenham defeat to Scotland in Steve Borthwick’s opening Test in charge.
Former England wing and 2003 World Cup winner Ben Cohen has told Sky Sports that there is a lot of work to do, though.
“I think that England have got to do a lot of work,” Cohen said on Sky Sports News.
“Borthwick is a good choice and somebody who can lead them forward to beyond this World Cup, but ultimately they’re seven games away from this World Cup. They should go there (World Cup) and really have the mindset of trying to win it or having a huge impact on that.
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2003 World Cup winner Ben Cohen feels Steve Borthwick and England have a lot of work to do as they continue their build-up to the World Cup
“Steve Borthwick and his coaching team have got a lot of work to do, not necessarily with skillset but mindset and how they approach the whole of this run-up to the World Cup.
“They’re on their worst ever run of games, they’re not in form and they certainly didn’t buy into Eddie Jones’ vision. Borthwick has taken that responsibility over and he has got to get the players to understand the vision of how he wants them to play and how they want to approach the World Cup.
“That looks at many different levels of detail on how they approach games and how they want to play. For me, it’s all about the mindset about going forward.”
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England defence coach Kevin Sinfield and skipper Owen Farrell look towards Italy at Twickenham
Former England centre Will Greenwood – also a member of the victorious World Cup team in 2003 – has told Sky Sports he feels England’s attacking players need to be encouraged not to stand deep from the opponents’ defensive line when on the offensive.
“If you take away from the individuals and actually explore what those individuals are doing, having watched the game three times now to try to find shoots of recovery, everything is a little too deep and not relevant to the personnel,” Greenwood said.
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Will Greenwood says more time and work is needed for Borthwick to improve the overall quality of his side
“I actually think it’s more of an issue for Nick Evans and the coaching staff to give players the confidence to go ‘there’s the opposition’s nose, go there and don’t be back here and give the opposition the initiative.’
“We are where we are, and I think Steve Borthwick has come out and said ‘I’ve inherited a team which aren’t world-class in any department.’
“He highlighted the ruck, and it seems he has gone about fixing a couple of those issues. But the bigger issue is we are there to be taken by better teams, we are unable to put teams away when we get in front, and it needs more time and more work.
“I’m always a positive English fan, it’s tough times, and it has been a pretty lean time for victories and glory, but we hope we’re only a few days away from grabbing a win.
“Forget about France in September and October, we need to put together a run of results in this Six Nations which allows us to feel like we’re starting to make progress.”
Team News
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Max Malins, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Ollie Chessum, 5 Maro Itoje, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 7 Jack Willis, 8 Alex Dombrandt
Replacements: 16 Jack Walker, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Marcus Smith, 23 Henry Arundell.
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Tommaso Menoncello, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Stephen Varney; 1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Sebastian Negri, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 8 Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Edoardo Iachizzi, 20 Jake Polledri, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23, Pierre Bruno.
