6N 2017: Ireland v England, 18 March

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IRELAND v ENGLAND
18 March 2017
KO: 17:00 GMT
Aviva Stadium, Dublin

Referee: Jerome Garces (France)
Touch judges: Mathieu Raynal (France) & Marius Mitrea (Italy)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

Live on [BBC, RTE, DMAX, FR2, ITV (H)]

A. Head to Head

131 Played 131
47 Won 76
8 Drawn 8
76 Lost 47
1,079 Points 1,526

B. Recent Form

27 February 2016
Twickenham, London
21 – 10 to England

5 September 2015
Twickenham, London
21 – 13 to England

1 March 2015
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
19 – 9 to Ireland

22 February 2014
Twickenham, London
13 – 10 to England

10 February 2013
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
6 – 12 to England

17 March 2012
Twickenham, London
30 – 9 to England

C. Teams

IRELAND

Payne; Earls, Ringrose, Henshaw, Zebo; Sexton, Marmion; McGrath, Best (captain), Furlong; Ryan, Henderson; Stander, O'Brien, Heaslip,

Replacements: Scannell, Healy, Ryan, Toner, O'Mahony, McGrath, Jackson, Conway.

ENGLAND

Brown; Watson, Joseph, Farrell, Daly; Ford, Youngs; Marler, Hartley (captain), Cole; Launchbury, Lawes; Itoje, Haskell, B Vunipola.

Replacements: George, M Vunipola, Sinckler, Wood, Hughes, Care, Te'o, Nowell.

Poor old Billy V pissed himself in the night club on Saturday night.

Did he hear that Heasip was going to tour? I would wee a bit myself.

GunsGermsV2 wrote:Poor old Billy V pissed himself in the night club on Saturday night.

I saw a picture of that. I thought he did an interview (after the RWC when the Lancaster rumours were floating about) where he said he didn't drink? Maybe it was his first time. Either way, Jones won't be happy. He did an interview recently about the conduct of professional rugby players going out and getting p*ssed and making a fool of themselves.

Good to see you guys enjoy hanging around the trash press.

I saw the picture of Billy V on a rugby forum. Trash press? What, are you a Guardian reader or something?

A lot of people who are pissed make a fool of themselves. Six Nations champs - beating the bejaysus out of themselves earlier in the day to entertain the millions watching. Not my way of celebrating but not my celebration.

I say let Billy be pissed if he wants to. We're not hopefully going to hear a big deal about this in the press: "Shame on him! The kids woz watching!!!"

I read the back of Corn Flakes boxes.... but the reading in them ain't so good since in recent years.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:I saw the picture of Billy V on a rugby forum. Trash press? What, are you a Guardian reader or something?

I expect something smaller with bigger print and nice pictures

Poor old Billy P

He will get a bit of ribbing, no doubt, but don't think he's done anything wrong. Just enjoying his 6N's success. It's up to him how much he drinks, as long as he harms nobody else in doing so.

No leprechauns were hurt in the making of this movie

GunsGermsV2 wrote:

He has played most of his tests at second row and a better 2nd row than back row.

Itoje has never lost an international match when he has played second row.

As far as I could see Itoje packed down as 2nd row in every scrum (on both teams put in) and Lawes was on the flank.
With Itoje you appear to get 3 second rows and no No. 6 on the pitch.

I don't think either Lawes nor Itoje played wildly differently to how they normally would and would agree that we just had 3 second rows on the pitch.

As someone who switches between 6, 7 and 8 I don't consciously change how I play depending on where I'm playing except for set pieces and what pod I'm running in. If there is any change, it'd because we're short a set of skills somewhere and I need to fill in.

Maybe it's the same here, with Robshaw out all 3 second rows had to pitch in a bit more at the breakdown, but none of them would have been thinking "I'm 6 now, this is Chris's shirt, I need to play how he does."