Former Ireland fly-half Ian Madigan believes that Simon Easterby’s side will ‘win well’ in their Six Nations opener against England.
The Irishmen begin their campaign with a match against Steve Borthwick’s team at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.
They are the back-to-back defending champions and are looking for a historic three in a row, which has never been done during the Six Nations era in the men’s game.
England ending Ireland’s dreams in 2024
Although it was the English who ended their chances of successive Grand Slams in 2024, something Madigan warned people about last year, the former playmaker can’t see them upsetting Ireland again.
“England did do a job on us last year. Everyone wrote them off before that game and I said: ‘Tread carefully here, they will have a plan’, and their plan worked,” he told the Irish Independent’s The Rugby Show.
“[But] I really like Ireland and I like how we’re playing. We’ve got good form going into it.
“I always think it’s good to see how the Irish provinces get on against the English teams. That wasn’t the best thing to look at when it was 12 English teams, but there’s only eight (editor’s note: 10) now.
“You’ve also got some of the top English teams littered with other good talent, the likes of Finn Russell [at Bath].
“We’ve got a significant edge on the Premiership teams now, although part of that is the budget in the Premiership has been reduced. But it’s not as strong as it was and that does carry into the Six Nations.
“I think Ireland win well, by 10 points.”
England’s defensive issues
Following that victory over Ireland in March 2024, England endured an underwhelming remainder of the year.
Despite some decent performances, Borthwick’s side lost a number of tight matches and from July onwards suffered five defeats in six matches.
The Autumn Nations Series was particularly poor from a defensive perspective, although that was not helped by Felix Jones’ resignation.
Joe El-Abd has since taken charge of the rearguard, but their displays in November has forced England to re-evaluate ahead of the Six Nations.
“If you want to look at it from an English perspective, they’re now trying to change their system as it wasn’t working. To be bringing in a new defensive system in two weeks is just simply not enough time,” Madigan added.
“The only way you find out if your defence is working or it’s not isn’t from training, it’s from playing matches because full contact in training is very different to full contact in a Test match.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ex-ireland-fly-half-writes-off-englands-chances-in-six-nations-opener-as-irish-provinces-have-significant-edge-on-premiership-teams
