Six Nations 2012: England's big-hitting Owen Farrell becoming the new Jonny Wilkinson reincarnation of Wilkinson, a man who first announced himself as a scourge of French teams when doing a similar number to Farrell on wing Emile Ntamack in 2000. England went on to win 15-9 that day, with Wilkinson the same age as Farrell is now. Farrell is too down to earth and modest to hear talk of comparisons. However, Wilkinson's pile-driving approach to the tackle, one that revolutionised the craft of fly-half play, did feature in Farrell's thinking. "Obviously, you realise for a fella playing fly-half going around putting all those big hits in, it was brilliant to watch," said Farrell, who has recovered from his bruised shoulder and is fit for Saturday's final RBS Six Nations match against Ireland at Twickenham. I played a lot at centre and you just want to make a positive impact on the game. Obviously, you're not meant to do it as a fly-half but it's good. You just want to make your hits and if a big hit presents itself, why not take it? He took it, slamming into Harinordoquy and bringing a dangerous attack to a shuddering halt. "France had just made a break," Farrell recalled. Brad Barritt had shot up and tried to put pressure on Trinh-Duc. I was lagging a bit behind, was able to look at the bigger picture and saw Harinordoquy coming steaming on to a short ball. You want to chop people down and get them on the floor as quickly as possible. I was able to line him up and hit through it. You certainly know when you've hit someone hard, yeah. Farrell grew up watching dad Andy knocking people backwards in rugby league. The youngster found trouble adapting to union when he first took up the game in his early teens, never wrapping his arms around opponents, "and I got penalised a few times." Farrell was at pains to point out that it was a collective effort in defence on Sunday. Defence allows you to be very physical, especially the way we defend. We want to get off the line. Everyone gets stuck in. By no means are we a very tidy defence. We're a defence that wants to get up and hit people. We want to impose ourselves through our physicality on other teams. Meanwhile, Stade Français lock Tom Palmer has recovered from the hamstring problem that obliged England to call up Bath's Dave Attwood for training. Leicester fly-half Toby Flood is among eight players who have returned to their clubs. England name their side on Thursday. Ireland have made just one change to the team that beat Scotland 32-14, flanker Sean O'Brien returning to the back-row after recovering from the skin infection for which he was treated in hospital last week. O'Brien, who lost two kilos, returned to training on Monday and is expected to be able to take his place in the starting line-up. Peter O'Mahony makes way. O'Brien's back-row colleague, Stephen Ferris, has accused England of being "bad losers." "When they lose, they don't like it," said Ferris. They're bad losers and hopefully they'll be bad losers on Saturday. Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), K Earls (Munster), G D'Arcy (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster, capt), M Ross (Leinster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), D Ryan (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), S O'Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster).