Farrell names Irish team to face England captained by his son

Robbie Henshaw will win his 52nd senior cap when Ireland throw down the gauntlet to England in their final game of the 2021 Six Nations championship tomorrow (Saturday).

Henshaw will renew his Connacht centre partnership with Bundee Aki as Garry Ringrose is injured, so Robbie switches to outside centre for the big clash at the Aviva Stadium.

Henshaw has surely been Ireland’s most consistent performer this season. In the view of many observers, the Athlone man was deserving of the man of the match accolade for his influential contribution, including the opening try, in last weekend's win away to Scotland.

The Buccaneers star has now scored eight tries for Ireland, two each against New Zealand, England and Italy as well as a try each against Scotland and France.

Ireland fans will be hoping he can notch a third touchdown against the ‘auld enemy’ and put in another stellar display on Saturday.

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell believes that his side will need to produce a season’s best performance if they are to overcome England in the final round of the Guinness Six Nations.

“We’re up against a very good side, who played extremely well last week,” said Farrell, describing the standard of the England v France game as "top notch".

“I’m sure that they’re hoping to put a similar performance in. For us, if that happens, we have to give an 80-minute performance that’s certainly the best of our competition so far," continued Farrell, who finds himself in opposition to an England team captained by his son Owen.

“We’ve had a great week together. Obviously our last week of the competition and we’re in a determined mood to try and put a statement out there this weekend,” added the Ireland coach.

The two teams come into the clash with near identical records in the 2021 Championship. Like the English, Farrell’s men have recorded two wins and two defeats so far.

Ireland have suffered four consecutive defeats in this fixture since winning the Grand Slam at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day, 2018, and will be eager to end this sequence with a strong performance at home.

Much of the build-up to this game –from an Irish perspective – has been dominated by the news that CJ Stander is to retire from all forms of rugby at the end of the season. This means that Saturday's game will be his Six Nations swansong.

Stander has been selected on the blindside flank rather than in his customary No.8 position, which will be filled by Jack Conan.

"CJ’s been fantastic. He’s been himself. He’s in a great mood and he is making sure that he’s going to enjoy this week, and we’re all going to be with him on that," said Farrell, who was aware of Stander’s retirement decision for quite some time.

Meanwhile, Elliot Daly will make his first England start at outside centre for almost five years after Henry Slade was ruled out of the clash with Ireland due to a calf injury.

Daly's return is the only change to the team that ended France's Grand Slam march at Twickenham last Saturday.

The eagerly anticipated Ireland v England match is being televised by Virgin (ROI) and ITV (NI) and kicks off at 4.45pm on Saturday.

Ireland team v England

(Guinness 6 Nations Championship, March 20)

15. Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 10 caps

14. Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster) 92 caps

13. Robbie Henshaw (Leinster/Buccaneers) 51 caps

12. Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 30 caps

11. Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) 33 caps

10. Jonathan Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 98 caps, captain

9. Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 88 caps

1. Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 42 caps

2. Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 20 caps

3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) 48 caps

4. Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 62 caps

5. Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) 21 caps

6. CJ Stander (Munster/Shannon) 50 caps

7. Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 30 caps

8. Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 19 caps.

Replacements

16. Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 10 caps

17. Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) 108 caps

18. Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 36 caps

19. Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 2 caps

20. Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 74 caps

21. Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 9 caps

22. Billy Burns (Ulster) 6 caps

23. Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 28 caps.

England team v Ireland

15. Max Malins

14. Anthony Watson

13. Elliot Daly

12. Owen Farrell (captain)

11. Jonny May

10. George Ford

9. Ben Youngs

1. Mako Vunipola

2. Luke Cowan-Dickie

3. Kyle Sinckler

4. Maro Itoje

5. Charlie Ewels

6. Mark Wilson

7. Tom Curry

8. Billy Vunipola.

Replacements

Jamie George, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Jonny Hill, Ben Earl, Dan Robson, Ollie Lawrence, Joe Marchant.