Six Nations 2025: England ‘favourites’ for title if they beat Ireland and France, says Austin Healey
Published 28/01/2025 at 09:57 GMT
TNT Sports rugby pundits Austin Healey and Brian O'Driscoll previewed England and Ireland's Six Nations clash, with the former claiming Steve Borthwick's side's tournament hopes hinge on their opening two fixtures (away to Ireland, home to France). The two teams begin their campaigns on Saturday, February 1, with Ireland aiming to become the first team to win three Six Nations titles in a row.
Healey says Ireland ‘don’t have same fear factor’ ahead of Six Nations opener against England
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Austin Healey believes England will be "favourites" for the Six Nations if they win their opening two games against Ireland and France - although he added that two defeats could lead to Steve Borthwick facing the axe.
England have not beaten the Irish on the road since 2019 but denied Andy Farrell's side the chance of claiming back-to-back Grand Slams in last year's thrilling encounter at Twickenham, which was settled by a last-minute Marcus Smith drop-goal.
But Borthwick's side suffered a disappointing Autumn Nations Series with defeats to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa that extended their losing streak to five, although they did claim a big win over Japan in their final game.
Too many losses in Borthwick's tenure so far makes it hard to see England getting the better of Ireland or France across the tournament, but Healey believes that, should they pick up a rare victory at the Aviva Stadium and then topple Les Bleus at home, they can set their sights firmly on the title.
"The beauty about this tournament now is those first two games," Healey said on TNT Sports' Rugby Review.
"If England go away and win their first game, they go back to Twickenham and they play France. They win their first two games, they then become favourites for the tournament.
"Conversely, if they lose in Dublin and they lose at Twickenham, we'll be talking about Borthwick getting the sack."
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After winning two straight Six Nations titles, Ireland endured a middling autumn campaign. They were thoroughly beaten by the All Blacks only to scrape close wins against Argentina and Australia, with a dominant display against Fiji sandwiched between the two.
To complicate matters, Farrell has started his sabbatical ahead of the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, leaving former Ireland international Simon Easterby as head coach in the interim.
"In the past 18 months there's been a fear about Ireland," Healey said.
"They can beat you at the breakdown, they've got an amazing pace game in terms of their ruck speed, and then they've got [Jamison] Gibson-Park who can do anything in the red zone. They were creating something out of nothing on numerous occasions.
"In the autumn, I went to every one of those games and if I had been on the opposition facing them for the next game, I wouldn't have the same fear factor.
"I don't know what it is, maybe other sides have worked them out a little bit. I don't think they're getting the ball as wide as efficiently as they were previously. Their kicking game is still always excellent, and they're good in the aerial game."
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Former Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll chimed in, questioning whether this current Ireland team have the same spark as compared to the side of the last few years.
"What happened against New Zealand, there was all this talk about four victories out of four and then straight up first against New Zealand we got quite badly beaten," he said.
"The scoreline probably didn't quite reflect how dominant they were. So just straight away it softened our cuff, we thought maybe we're not the team we thought we were.
"Then we eked out a decent victory against Argentina without really doing anything magnificent, and then won against Australia not playing well. So there's lots of positives when you're not doing well, still picking up victories against teams that could turn you over very easily, but there's some hang-up.
"There's something left going: 'are we quite the same team that we were at the World Cup in 2023?'
"We're in the same boat [as England]. We win the first one, fantastic, but if you lose the first one then you have to go to Edinburgh over to Murrayfield, and we know how good Scotland are at the moment, how much they're licking their lips."
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