Six Nations 2016 - England vs Ireland: Maro Itoje set for full debut as Joe Launchbury forced out

The match takes place on Saturday evening

Maro Itoje claims line-out ball during England practice at Pennyhill Park (Getty)

England thought they were heading into this Saturday’s Six Nations match against the reigning champions Ireland at Twickenham with a clear advantage in the engine room of the scrum, thanks to the big-name absentees in the visiting pack and the hot form of Joe Launchbury and George Kruis in their own. Suddenly, that edge does not seem quite so sharp.

Launchbury, the Wasps forward whose performance against the same opponents in 2014 was as good as anything seen from a red-rose lock in years, was ruled out of the contest by medical staff yesterday after failing to recover from what Steve Borthwick, the forwards coach, described as a “tight hamstring”. Borthwick was under the impression that the hamstring in question would loosen in good time for the game. So much for his skills as a prognosticator.

Courtney Lawes, the most experienced of the current band of second-rowers, was recalled to the squad immediately, having been bumped out as recently as Tuesday evening. Together with the outstanding Saracens prospect Maro Itoje, the Northampton man covers all the necessary bases, but he did not exactly set the River Tiber ablaze with his performance against Italy last time out and if the head coach Eddie Jones stays true to his original thinking on selection for this one, Itoje will make his first start at international level.

There may be no better time to make the move everyone in English rugby has been expecting all season. Itoje, who led the Under-20s to a world title in New Zealand a little under two years ago, won his first full cap off the bench in Rome as a back-row substitute and that may yet turn out to be his optimum role. However, he has played the lion’s share of his elite club rugby in the boilerhouse, alongside Kruis. Put simply, the pieces fit.

It is not as if Ireland are cocks of the walk in the second-row department now that Paul O’Connell has retired and Iain Henderson, his obvious successor, is on the long-term injury list. They have even lost the functional but less-than-stellar Mike McCarthy to concussion – a development that leaves the elongated line-out specialist Devin Toner scratching around for meaningful support.

Donnacha Ryan, a hard-nut operator in the grand Munster tradition, is in contention to return to the starting line-up, but beyond him the Irish are putting their faith in the uncapped 22-year-old Ultan Dillane, whose form for Connacht, the least fashionable but perhaps most resourceful of the country’s four provincial teams, has attracted plenty of admirers.

“If you’ve seen him tackle you’ll know he’s a pretty physical animal,” said Simon Easterby, the Ireland forwards coach. “He hits rucks, he scrummages well, he’s very powerful in the gym. He’s the sort of player who’ll have a bright future if we can hone his skills and game awareness.”

As ever, Borthwick struck a more cautious note when he cast his eye over the runners and riders. A former England captain who spent his entire professional career in the second row and was rightly renowned as one of the leading line-out forwards in the sport, the Cumbrian identified Toner as a potential threat to the home side’s set-piece security – an area in need of some attention if events in Italy were anything to go by.

“When you’re up against players of Toner’s height,” he said of the 6ft 10in forward from County Meath, “it’s definitely a factor. It’s where the analysis and the detail comes in – you need to come up with a plan and execute it. But at the same time, you don’t want to concentrate on the opposition to the extent that you detract from what you’re trying to bring to the game yourselves.

“In Italy, we played against a pack who posed us some problems at the line-out – problems that we didn’t answer particularly well. We didn’t execute to the standard I want to see and the players realised that and were disappointed. In one sense it was a good learning experience, but it’s also clear that we have a big contest ahead of us and need to improve.”