England’s Six Nations is savaged and all roads lead to Rome
The Telegraph Rugby Podcast
The Telegraph
4.5 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're three weeks into the Six Nations and England's hopes of winning the tournament are up in flames after they were hammered by Ireland at Twickenham.
Alan and Charles are joined in studio by the Telegraph's Dan Schofield to unpack the defeat and look at how England can salvage what is left of their Six Nations campaign.
It was a bittersweet afternoon for England captain Maro Itoje. He won his 100th cap for his country but was withdrawn early once again and Dan thinks it's time he was given a six-month sabbatical from the game to ensure he is at his best for the World Cup next year.
We also ask what has happened to the England lineout, and why is their defence so easy to penetrate?
As for Ireland, that performance instantly changes the narrative around Andy Farrell's side. There's high praise for Stuart McCloskey too who has been their standout player of the tournament so far.
Elsewhere we ask if Wales fans will be happy despite defeat to Scotland in Cardiff, can anyone stop France winning a Grand Slam and we tackle your questions as usual.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:06.8 | Home to the Emirates-Dubai Sevens, Dubai is the ultimate sporting break, with a packed events calendar every year, including the DP World Tour Golf Championship and the Dubai tennis championships. |
| 0:20.3 | There are lots of opportunities to witness world-class sport in action. |
| 0:24.2 | And if you're looking to have your own active adventure holiday, you'll be spoiled for choice, |
| 0:28.9 | whether that's hitting the paddle court or hiking the mountains of Hatter. |
| 0:33.6 | Plan your getaway at visit Dubai.com. |
| 0:37.0 | Thank you. Plan your getaway at visit Dubai.com. |
| 0:47.2 | Hello there. |
| 0:48.8 | Welcome back to the Telegraph Rugby podcast. |
| 0:49.8 | We made it. |
| 0:53.6 | We've reached the first and only follow week of this Six Nations. And look who's here in studio. It's Daniel Schofield. Daniel, how are you? Very well, thank you. Welcome to the studio. We're going to get on to all sorts. I mean, it's hard to avoid England. But what have you made of the Six Nations generally so far? I mean, it's been a bit odd. No, enjoyable chaos. Enjoyable chaos. Like, |
| 1:14.4 | like my predictions are all in the bin. Yeah. Which I think it's a good thing. Like if it had |
| 1:21.6 | come down to France in England for the slam, where's the sort of joy in that? There needs to be upset. |
| 1:29.2 | Obviously, we're going to come on to this in greater depth, |
| 1:31.2 | but would you say that that first half at Twickenham on Saturday |
| 1:34.0 | was one of the weirdest 40 minutes of rugby of all time? |
| 1:38.9 | And I'm not talking just... |
| 1:39.7 | This is Charles Richardson, by the way. |
| 1:40.7 | Sorry, yeah, and my voice is a semi-tone lower today |
| 1:42.8 | because I'm under the way. Sorry, yeah, and my voice is a semi-tone lower today because I'm under the weather, but, um, just objectively, not even with English goggles on, just incredibly weird, so flat, Ireland running away with it, referee going off injured. It had literally everything. At one point, I was expecting a cockerel to run around the twicken of pitch or something |
| 2:01.2 | like that or a dog on the pitch. It was just incredibly bizarre. That's really winter Olympics only. |
| 2:05.8 | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the fact that Steve Warfwick made two half, first half tactical |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Telegraph, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Telegraph and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.