Stephen Ferris previews Ireland v England and Wales v South Africa
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The 2023 Rugby World Cup starts in France next month and former Ireland international Stephen Ferris casts his eye over a couple of warm-up games taking place over the weekend.
Ireland will be looking to make it 16 home wins in a row when England come to Dublin on Saturday.
There have been lots of talking points during the build-up to this match, starting with Owen Farrell getting off with a ban, and now World Rugby are trying to overturn this decision. I’m sure it’s hard for the English team to focus on the job at hand…not losing to us for the fourth time.
Keith Earls will win a 100th cap for his country. Can he and his team dominate a pretty much full-strength English side? I think they can, and they have shown it in the past. Ireland are 14 point favourites, but I feel England are better than what they have shown recently and I expect the scoreboard to reflect that.
Wales kick us off on Saturday when they take on the reigning World Cup champions South Africa in Cardiff.
Wales have lost four of their last five games against South Africa, althigh the winning margin in those games has been five points or fewer.
South Africa’s defence is so resilient. They have the highest dominant tackles of any team, and they are extremely difficult to go through. Will Wales try to go around them instead? It will be interesting to see what master plan Warren Gatland comes up with.
Finally on Saturday evening, we have an injurystruck French squad playing against the flying Fijians. This should be a belter of a game as Fiji have selected a strong team and France have rested several of their key players. This will be a confrontational battle, harrd-hitting and fast-paced.
Fiji have won their last three games and France looked shaky in their last two games against Scotland. Could we see an upset?
