Ireland's Andy Farrell demands courage after ringing the changes for England

Andy Farrell has called for courage from Ireland on Saturday as they seek to end a run of four defeats by England with a victory that would define their Six Nations campaign.

Farrell has rung the changes to his side, recalling Conor Murray and Jacob Stockdale, with Bundee Aki coming into the centres in place of the injured Garry Ringrose. The head coach has made six changes in total with Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan coming into the back-row and Dave Kilcoyne preferred at loosehead prop.

CJ Stander, who makes his final appearance for Ireland after the shock announcement this week that he will retire at the end of the season, moves to blindside with Farrell’s side chasing a third successive win, having begun with narrow defeats by Wales and France.

Ireland have not beaten England since clinching their 2018 grand slam at Twickenham and Farrell has endured two comprehensive defeats against them since taking over. Victory on Saturday, however, would almost certainly ensure a top-half Six Nations finish.

“We’ve got to have courage to go out there and win the game and make the statement that we want to make, to ourselves first and foremost,” Farrell said.

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Ireland team v England

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Ireland team to play England in Dublin 

H Keenan (Leinster); K Earls (Munster), R Henshaw (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Stockdale (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster, capt), C Murray (Munster); D Kilcoyne (Munster), R Herring (Ulster), T Furlong (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster), T Beirne (Munster), CJ Stander (Munster), J Van Der Flier (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster). 

Replacements R Kelleher (Leinster), C Healy (Leinster), A Porter (Leinster), R Baird (Leinster), P O’Mahony (Munster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster), B Burns (Ulster), J Larmour (Leinster).

“I think the mental state of the squad is very strong. They’re very buoyant this week, in a determined mood. They know that this is the last game of the competition, where we get a chance to put our best performance out there for 80 minutes, which is something that we haven’t quite achieved yet. But we’ll need to do that to win and they’re in a determined mood to make that happen.”

source: theguardian.com