England vs Ireland result: Irish Grand Slam dream ends as hosts deliver dominant victory

Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of today's Six Nations encounter between England and Ireland as we bring you the latest updates from pitchside to wrap up the round three weekend.

England head into the contest as slight favourites despite Ireland looking to keep pace with France in the race for the Grand Slam, having won both of their opening games so far. Both teams have been forced into changes due to injury or absentees, but they are largely made up of the same players who featured in this fixture last year when England claimed a rare away win in Dublin.

Kick-off is scheduled for 3pm, with our full build up getting underway from 1:30pm.

The heavens have opened above Twickenham and England must be wondering what they've got to do to get a dry game of rugby this championship, having battled atrocious conditions in both Paris and Edinburgh so far this campaign.

That could well be why Eddie Jones has loaded his side with forwards once again, with a six-two split among the replacements and no fewer than five locks in the matchday 23.

Ireland themselves will be no stranger to the weather conditions though, but it could mean this one becomes a much tighter affair than initially anticipated.

With around 90 minutes to go until kick-off, we won't know the confirmed teams for a while yet, but here's how they're slated to line up today:

England: Elliot Daly; Jonny May, Manu Tuilagi, Owen Farrell, Jonathan Joseph; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Joe Marler, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler; Maro Itoje, George Kruis; Courtney Lawes, Sam Underhill, Tom Curry.

Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Joe Launchbury, Charlie Ewels, Ben Earl, Willi Heinz, Henry Slade.

Ireland: Jordan Larmour; Andrew Conway, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong; Devin Toner, James Ryan; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Caelan Doris, John Cooney, Ross Byrne, Keith Earls.

Eddie Jones has certainly been at the forefront of the build up this week.

The Australian put himself up for every day of media duty bar one over the course of the two-week break between the Scotland and Ireland games, and it did not pass without controversy when the Australian managed to accuse one reporter of racism through an innocent question last Thursday.

Thankfully he apologised for his comments, but it was his words on Friday that proved the more intriguing, given he has a belief that the future of rugby will see the emergence of "hybrid" forwards who are capable of playing full-time in the backs.

Needless to say, it raised a few eyebrows.

The two teams have arrived at Twickenham, with the two captains and rival fly-halves leading them in through the Rose and Poppy Gate.

Confirmation that there are no changes to the line-ups as they were announced.

Both teams have plenty of threats across the board this afternoon, but the two key players can be located in the same position. Still on the younger side of their respective careers, Maro Itoje and James Ryan have come to define the standard set for each of their teams, so much so that even their own head coach's acknowledge that they are pivotal to their hopes of victory today.

Here's how the two potential greats stack up:

The heavy rain that hit Twickenham about an hour ago has cleared substantially to leave beautiful clear skies above and a rather warm day. The pitch is looking in rather good shape right now all things considered, though it will have benefitted massively of not having any rugby played on it during Storm Ciara and Dennis over the last fortnight.

Hopefully that should encourage the type of rugby we know these two sides are both capable of.

Caption competition...

After all the controversy surrounding George Furbank's non-selection this weekend, the full-back is out there with the rest of the squad warming up as on of England's travelling reserves.

Initially Eddie Jones claimed that Furbank was not fit for selection after struggling with a persistent groin issue, but with Ollie Thorley sent back to Gloucester this weekend, it quickly transpired that left Furbank as the only injury cover for the backs.

Unsurprisingly, he looks to be moving freely, and you've got to think it was all a cover up to prevent the headlines of the youngster being dropped.