Murphy focused on Twickenham clash

Geordan Murphy will be looking to make his 64th cap a memorable one this weekend as Ireland take on England at Twickenham on Saturday in the RBS Six Nations.

The game is vital to both teams as Ireland are looking to bounce back from the crushing defeat in Paris last time out, while England will be looking to build on two solid but uninspiring victories over Wales and Italy.

Ireland coach Declan Kidney has tinkered with the team slightly for the game, Murphy replacing Rob Kearney at full back after he was injured in France while Kidney has opted for young Leinster prospect Johnny Sexton at fly half, Donncha O’Callaghan replacing Leo Cullen in the second row and Rory Best replacing the banned Jerry Flannery at hooker.

“Last year there was some negative press over England but they still finished second in the championship, England teams are always very strong.” said Kidney when asked about the recent unimpressive displays from Johnson’s side.

Murphy will be looking to put himself back in Kidney’s plans this Saturday after recent injury problems have hampered his season. He’s excited about playing at Twickenham and facing some Leicester team-mates, old and new.

“I have played with and against some of the (England) guys on a regular basis and know Twickenham well,” Murphy added.

England will be looking to beat Ireland to keep their chances alive of a surprising Grand Slam, Martin Johnson keeping faith with the same fifteen who laboured to a victory over Italy in Rome, ignoring some of the ridiculous calls in the press to drop Wilkinson, who has had his bad days at the office but is still a world-class player when it comes to it.

“Jonny missed a few kicks and suddenly everyone’s calling for his head which I find pretty disappointing and surprising,” the former England captain said.

England were very disappointing against Italy and Johnson knows that but he is a realist and knows that despite just getting past Italy, they didn’t lose the game and are in a better Championship position than their Irish opponents whose back to back Grand Slam dreams were extinguished against an explosive France side.

Twickenham is sure to be a cauldron of noise and raw emotion on Saturday come 4 o’clock, when we could possibly see the best game of the championship so far with two teams wanting to prove everything to their doubters for different reasons.

England: 15-Delon Armitage, 14-Mark Cueto, 13-Mathew Tait, 12-Riki Flutey, 11-Ugo Monye, 10-Jonny Wilkinson, 9-Danny Care; 1-Tim Payne, 2-Dylan Hartley, 3-Dan Cole, 4-Simon Shaw, 5-Steve Borthwick (captain), 6-James Haskell, 7-Lewis Moody, 8-Nick Easter

Replacements: 16-Lee Mears, 17-David Wilson, 18-Louis Deacon, 19-Joe Worsley, 20-Paul Hodgson, 21-Toby Flood, 22-Ben Foden.

Ireland: 15-Geordan Murphy, 14-Tommy Bowe, 13-Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12-Gordon D’Arcy, 11-Keith Earls, 10-Jonathan Sexton, 9-Tomas O’Leary; 1-Cian Healy, 2-Rory Best, 3-John Hayes, 4-Donncha O’Callaghan, 5-Paul O’Connell, 6-Stephen Ferris, 7-David Wallace, 8-Jamie Heaslip.

Replacements: 16-Sean Cronin, 17-Tony Buckley, 18-Leo Cullen, 19-Shane Jennings, 20-Eoin Reddan, 21-Ronan O’Gara, 22-Andrew Trimble.

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England face Ireland while the Scots take on Italy

This weekend sees grand-slam chasing Ireland take on England at Croke Park, and Scotland hosting the Italians at Murrayfield.

Ireland are looking to avenge their humiliating defeat at Twickenham last year by trying to emulate their famous victory over the English at Croke Park in 2007.

That time Ireland thumped England 43-13, in an emotionally charged atmosphere.

“Two years ago we had a record win over England but that was a real one-off,” said Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll. 

Ireland will want to continue their good run, after defeating France on the opening day of the championship and beating Italy in Rome two weeks ago.

Declan Kidney, the Irish coach, has named an unchanged squad to face England on Saturday.

Ulsterman, Paddy Wallace has been given the thumps up after suffering from a head injury against France, which needed 16 stitches over his left eye.

England will be desperate to get their campaign back on track after being soundly beaten by champions Wales 23-15, two weeks ago.

Toby Flood is England’s only change. He gets the number 10 shirt, replacing Andy Goode, who drops to the bench.

England coach, Martin Johnson, said “he has played pretty well coming off the bench, so we think it’s a great opportunity for him to come in and start.”

Danny Cipriani, the young fly half talked up as the next Johnny Wilkinson, has failed to impress while wearing the England shirt and is again left out of Martin Johnson’s squad, despite having a good run of domestic form for Wasps.

The Scotland-Italy match has been marked down as the wooden spoon decider, but the with their nations pride at stake, expect to see 80 minutes of raw passion on show.

Scotland coach, Frank Hadden, has made two changes to his squad, with both Euan Murray and Alastair Kellock coming in.

“We are delighted to recall Euan Murray and bring someone as experienced as Al Kellock in to replace Jim Hamilton,” said Hadden.

 The Italians themselves have also made changes to the side that lost to Ireland two weeks ago.

Andrea Marcato and Marco Bortolami return from injury to join the Azzuri along with Leonardo Ghiraldini and Gonzalo Garcia.

This will be an extremely important weekend for all the teams and should prove to be a great spectacle of rugby.