GET UGLY IRELAND

JERRY FLANNERY believes Ireland will have to get ugly to beat England.

And the Munster and Ireland legend thinks Andy Farrell’s only chance of winning in London is for every player in green to bully their opponent.

The opposite has been the case for the last three matches, Eddie Jones’ men winning them by a 113 to 47 points aggregate.

“If you look at Eddie Jones’s teams, he’s not trying to play pretty rugby, he picks a massive pack and kicks the leather off the ball,” said Flannery (above), now a coach with Harlequins.

“If you don’t match them physically it’s gone, that’s the story of the last three games.

“Ireland under Joe Schmidt, they always had fantastic plans – they relied on that – and they’ll have good plans under Andy Farrell but if each player doesn’t physically outdo their opponent and dominate the collisions, then there are no plans that will work.”

Flannery, who won three of four games against England during his Ireland career, also insists brute force must come before brains.

“When you are 14 or 15 you give the ball to the best player or the biggest guy and he makes yards,” he said.

“Then as you get older and cleverer, you can make plans and look how you get the biggest guy on the opposition’s smallest guy.

“But at international level it boils back to every player being able to dominate the other guy. Your clever plans won’t work if you’re not going forward, that momentum comes from players being physical and taking control.”