Itoje's 100th as England face Ireland
The Ruck
Reynolds Alfie
3.4 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Following defeat to Scotland in the Calcutta Cup last weekend, England host Ireland in round three of the 6 Nations on Saturday.
Alfie Reynolds, Alex Lowe, Will Kelleher and Charlie Morgan are at the England training base ahead of the match and ask whether England or Ireland are under more pressure heading into the fixture? They chat about Steve Borthwick's squad selection, with Henry Pollock making his first start and Maro Itoje set to earn his 100th cap for his country.
Jack Crowley is set to start at fly-half for the Irish, is that a good or bad thing for England? Would they have rather come up against Sam Prendergast?
Plus, this weekend Wales host Scotland and France play Italy.
***
The Ruck Live!
Before the final whistle is blown on the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations, there’s the small matter of Super Saturday. This year the final round promises to be even more explosive, with rivals England and France going head-to-head in the very last match of the competition at the Stade de France.
Tough-tacklers Courtney Lawes and Serge Betsen will join Charlie Morgan, Senior Rugby Writer at The Times, and Alfie Reynolds — host of our podcast The Ruck — to compare notes on Le Crunch and the biggest moments of this year’s tournament.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is the Ruck, the journalist's rugby podcast from The Times and the Sunday Times hurtling into week three of the six nations. |
| 0:22.8 | England Island on Saturday, as is Wales against Scotland and then on Sunday, France. Italy, I'm Alfie Reynolds. |
| 0:28.4 | We're back at the England training base alongside Alex Lowe. Hi, Alex. |
| 0:32.6 | Hello. And also Will Kelleher. Hello. And Charlie Morgan. |
| 0:36.3 | What, my broil flush. It is all of us together. What a time to be alive. Look, lads, I'm going to launch right into this. England, Ireland. We'll start there. We'll get on to the other two games. Who is under more pressure heading into this match? England or Ireland? 100% Ireland in my head. Do you think? Yeah. See, I would have said England. Ireland? 100% Ireland in my head. |
| 0:54.9 | Do you think? |
| 0:55.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:57.0 | See, I would have said England. |
| 0:57.8 | Why? |
| 1:02.8 | Because I think Ireland, there is somewhat of an acceptance that Ireland are in a bit of a rebuild and they're coming away to Twicken them and they're not expected to win. |
| 1:06.3 | Whereas I think if England lose two in a row off the back of that performance and defeat |
| 1:10.6 | in Murrayfield, then it's changed the whole feeling, the whole complexion, the whole thought process around this team. If they win against Ireland and they can maybe put that game to bed and say that was a bit of a blip, we're still a good team, put in a good performance that I think there's almost more of a pressure on England to do that. I think it's more damning if England lose this weekend, would have been my theory. So to do the other side, the devil's advocate point, England went into this tournament, 11 unbeaten, then 12 unbeaten with the Wales game. So if it were to be a two-game blip, you'd go, well, that's 2 in 15, albeit they will have really under-delivered in this tournament, whereas Ireland it's been a really |
| 1:46.0 | quite extended demise, maybe? Is that fair? I think if Ireland lose away in France, away in England, |
| 1:54.4 | but win the three at home, that's probably about par for where that team is, whereas if England lose in Scotland and then lose at home |
| 2:04.2 | with France still to come, there's a prospect of another two from five, six nations. |
| 2:10.6 | What I think looking at the two teams is very evident that we've discussed on the pod before |
| 2:16.9 | about the balance between trying to win today, but also build a squad for the World Cup and both coaches have just gone we just got to win on Saturday. |
| 2:25.2 | You can see even from the Tommy Freeman selection of moving him back to the wing, he could easily have decided not to pause that project because there is a grander plan at play, but that |
| 2:36.6 | doesn't supersede the need to win on Saturday. So both coaches are feeling the pressure. Both |
| 2:41.8 | coaches in their team selections for me have revealed, I guess, that this has to be the only |
| 2:48.9 | thing that matters this week. I think Ireland certainly feel under more overt pressure, don't they? |
| 2:53.1 | We had Andy Farrell's, are we Irish in the week, |
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