Ford: Ireland’s 2018 triumph will fire us up
ENGLAND will bottle the feeling of seeing Ireland win the Grand Slam at Twickenham two years ago and use it this week, according to George Ford. Despite thrashing the Irish 32-20 and 57-15 in the two most recent Tests between the sides, England’s players are still stung by 2018. Fly-half Ford said of the 24-15 defeat that saw the Irish clinch the title at Twickenham under Joe Schmidt: ‘Yeah we remember. We never like losing matches, particularly at home. We haven’t spoken about that. Maybe in Test week we’ll dive into a few things to get us right emotionally. ‘It’s a balance, isn’t it? You don’t want to look too far in the past but if it’s something you can use to get yourself to a higher level, then you use it. We’ll see what the two or three critical things are that we need to do to make sure we’re ready for this game.’ With Andy Farrell now Ireland head coach, Ford knows England face a stern examination. Ford has known Farrell, father of his best friend Owen, since childhood and worked under the rugby league great in the previous England set-up. ‘We understand the challenge that lies ahead,’ he said. ‘They are going to be hard to break down from an attacking point of view and will be looking to bring some line-speed and something a bit different against us in defence. ‘They are probably trying to develop their attack. They have Mike Catt there as well who is obviously a very good coach. He thinks about the game from a very attacking point of view.’