Ireland v England

Only the fourth international rugby match ever played, and Ireland were barely a year into having a union to call their own.

On 15 February 1875, England hosted Ireland at The Oval, Kennington, the famous cricket ground doubling as a rugby venue in those early days. England won by two goals to nil, though no formal points system existed at the time. Ireland's team was selected by the Irish Football Union, which had been founded just a year earlier. The fixture was only the fourth international rugby match ever played, following the established Scotland v England contests.

Lansdowne Road, opened in 1872, staged the return fixture as England claimed victory once more and the alternating tradition took hold.

Three years after their first encounter, Ireland welcomed England to Dublin for the return fixture. The match was played at Lansdowne Road, which had been established as a sporting venue in 1872 and would go on to host Irish rugby internationals for well over a century. England won again, but the tradition of alternating the fixture between the two countries was now firmly established.

Sport gave the rivalry a fixture; politics gave it a fury.

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales contested the first Home Nations Championship in 1883, giving the fixture between England and Ireland a formal competitive framework for the first time. England won the inaugural tournament. The annual championship meant the two sides would now meet every season, and the rivalry quickly developed an edge that went well beyond sport, shaped by the complex political relationship between the two nations.

61 years would pass before Ireland lifted a Grand Slam again; that tells you everything about 1948.

Ireland completed their first ever Grand Slam in the 1948 Five Nations Championship, winning all four matches. The campaign included a victory over England, and the achievement was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Ireland drew players from both sides of the border, just two years after the Republic of Ireland Act. It would take Ireland 61 years to win another Grand Slam, a measure of just how special that 1948 side was.

Dublin's thousandth birthday gave the oldest of rivalries its own piece of silverware.

To celebrate the millennium of Dublin's founding, the Irish and English rugby unions introduced the Millennium Trophy in 1988, awarded to the winner of each year's fixture between the two sides. The trophy gave the rivalry its own piece of silverware, separate from the Five Nations Championship. It added a layer of needle to an already charged encounter, ensuring that even in seasons where neither side was challenging for the title, the match carried its own distinct prize.

Five became six in 2000; suddenly the fixture that shaped a rivalry could land anywhere in the calendar.

Italy's admission to the championship in 2000 transformed the Five Nations into the Six Nations, adding an extra fixture weekend and broadening the tournament's reach. For the England v Ireland rivalry, the expanded format meant the fixture could now fall on different weekends within the calendar, occasionally serving as a final-day decider. The professional era had already sharpened the contest, with Ireland's provinces growing in strength and feeding a more competitive national side.

A ground that held 51,700 souls yet still felt intimate enough to rattle even the bravest visiting side.

The Aviva Stadium opened in May 2010 on the hallowed ground of Lansdowne Road, which had hosted Irish rugby since the 1870s. The new 51,700-capacity ground, designed by Populous and Scott Tallon Walker, brought world-class facilities while preserving the tight, atmospheric feel that made the old ground so intimidating for visiting sides. Ireland's first Six Nations match at the Aviva came in February 2011, and the stadium quickly established itself as one of European rugby's finest venues.

Seven tries, one tournament, one man; Jacob Stockdale's campaign made a Grand Slam feel inevitable.

Under Joe Schmidt, Ireland won the 2018 Six Nations Grand Slam, their third in history and first since 2009. The campaign culminated with a 24-15 victory over England at Twickenham on St Patrick's Day, a date and venue combination that could hardly have been more fitting. Jacob Stockdale scored seven tries across the tournament, and Ireland's clinical, structured game plan proved too much for every opponent they faced.

Five wins from five; Ireland left no room for doubt in claiming a fourth Grand Slam on home soil.

Andy Farrell's Ireland won the 2023 Six Nations Grand Slam, their fourth in history, with a commanding 29-16 victory over England at the Aviva Stadium on the final day. It was a fitting conclusion to a dominant campaign in which Ireland won all five matches. The victory over England in Dublin, in front of a sold-out crowd, underlined Ireland's status as the top-ranked side in world rugby at the time. The fixture remains one of the most sought-after tickets in the Six Nations calendar.