England manager Roy Hodgson on Saturday urged his team's supporters not to "provoke" their Irish counterparts when the countries meet in Dublin on Sunday for the first time since 1995.

In the last encounter between the teams on Irish soil 20 years ago, a friendly at Lansdowne Road had to be abandoned after only 27 minutes following a riot by far-right hooligans in the England end.

The Football Association has taken a tough stance prior to the reunion at the Aviva Stadium -- writing to all 3,000 travelling fans to remind them of the need to behave and obliging supporters with banning orders to report to English police stations -- and Hodgson hopes the measures work.

"It was a particularly bad time for English football and the behaviour of English fans and it was a bad time unfortunately for Ireland on the Irish mainland," said Hodgson, who attended the 1995 game.

"I would like to think in the 20 years since things have moved on considerably and things are considerably better on both fronts.

"We can only hope that both sets of fans behave themselves and in particular our fans do not try to provoke the Irish fans by doing things they really should not do.

"They know they shouldn't do them, we've made it clear they shouldn't do them, so let's hope we don't have to talk about that after the game."

While England's home friendly against Ireland in May 2013 passed off without incident, their fans have chanted about the Irish paramilitary group the IRA during recent away games against Scotland and Italy.

England captain Wayne Rooney echoed Hodgson's words about the need for good behaviour in the stands.

"We understand the game 20 years ago, the problems there," the Manchester United striker told a press conference at the Aviva Stadium.

"As the manager said, the game's moved on, the FA have got the messages out to the fans and hopefully the fans will behave themselves and enjoy the match."