Eddie Jones defiant in his own selection to back up claim England are surpassing their Rugby World Cup level

England may not be willing to accept it publicly but they are fully aware that failure to beat Ireland on Sunday will realistically end their Six Nations championship hopes, which made it all the more surprising that after a week on the Irish charm offensive, Eddie Jones finally delivered something of a warning for Andy Farrell’s side.

Jones’s team remain the narrow favourites to lift the title even though they got off to a losing start in Paris, with the bookmakers predicting a home victory this weekend at Twickenham and backing Ireland to beat France on the final weekend of the championship.

If that prediction is to play out, England will need to be much closer to the levels they demonstrated at the Rugby World Cup last autumn than what they have shown in their last two outings. But Jones made the surprising claim that not only has he seen signs this week that suggest this squad are getting back to what they produced against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-finals, but they may even be on the verge of exceeding it.

“It’s a big game, isn’t it?” said Jones. “No one can detract from the fact that it’s a big game. You guys have been edgy this week because you’re sensing it’s a big game, so the players sense that, and it’s nice to have that at the start of the week because you know the players are on song, they know how important the game is.

“If you use the rollercoaster analogy you’re sitting at the top of a hill, you’re excited but you’re also anxious, a bit uncomfortable, you’re not quite sure.

“(Thursday was) by far the most intense session we’ve done. We’re getting back to our World Cup level, or even above the World Cup level, whereas at the start of the Six Nations we were 20 per cent below that.”

Jones has taken the blame for that failure to hit the ground running post-World Cup, with the Australian admitting that the decision to give the squad an easy first few days in camp while training in Portugal led directly to their awful start in Paris, resulting in a 24-17 defeat.

But he has stood defiant in the face of fan criticism against those who believe his selections offer little continuity. For example, as England’s team was announced through its official Twitter account, nearly every response questioned where the logic was in selecting four players out of what is widely regarded as their natural positions. The Tom Curry experiment continues at No 8 as lock Courtney Lawes was named at blindside flanker, with Lewis Ludlam strangely dumped from the matchday squad completely despite England’s back-row dominance at Murrayfield last time out, while centre Jonathan Joseph is named on the wing with Elliot Daly shifted to full-back.

Joseph’s selection for his 50th cap prompted the biggest eyebrow raise given natural wing Ollie Thorley was sent back to Gloucester – a move made all the more surprising given that Jones said George Furbank was not selected this week due to fears over a persistent groin and hip issue yet remains injury cover for the match this weekend – but his reasoning for sticking with the Bath back lies in what Joseph offers defensively rather than what he does with the ball in hand.

“He’s one of our best defenders in space, competent under the high ball and has great running skills,” Jones said of Joseph. “With the resources we have available he’s the best guy for that spot.

“We train him at winger a lot because that’s always been part of the positions that he needs to cover. Look, it’s part of the game. We don’t know how many high balls (Ireland) are going to do. We think we’ve prepared for that but the game will be the telling point.

“I’ve been impressed by his progress as a team member. I think he’s always been a good individual player, and he’s one of the best defending players I’ve coached. His ability to read the situation – know when to close, know when not to – is absolutely outstanding. He’s a great chop tackler and he’s got great running skills.

“(Thorley is) progressing well. He’s still got some work to do on his game before he’s ready but we’re in the process of getting him ready to play Test rugby.”

With captain Owen Farrell stood down from media duties this week as he prepares to take on the side coached by his own father, it was up to vice-captain George Ford to offer the player’s insight into training this week. The 26-year-old has long been one of the most established voices in the England dressing room alongside Farrell, so when the Leicester fly-half notices that something isn’t quite right, it is usually in everyone’s best interest to listen.

“It is funny sometimes, you have a couple of days off after the weekend because it was a fallow week, and the first session back, even though you have loads of enthusiasm and energy, can be inaccurate and a little bit too desperate,” Ford said of Tuesday’s session. “You'd rather have it that way though rather than not being there from an attitude point of view. As the week has gone on we have managed to marry the two up, having good accuracy and control, and good attitude and energy as well. Hopefully we can carry that on to Sunday.

“We had a good session yesterday (Thursday), it certainly felt good – it's hard, obviously (the coaches) know all the facts and figures – but it certainly felt like somewhere where we were at the back end of the World Cup in terms of training level of intensity.

“Having a period where you go away back with your clubs and you come back into camp, it's difficult to go straight back to that. Two or three, four weeks down the line, as Eddie says, we are back there, which stands us in good stead.”

Eddie Jones

The squad have been able to rediscover that level of intensity simultaneously with the return of Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade, the former put straight back into the starting XV at outside centre and the latter named among the replacements. It’s no surprise that the two fit-again centres have brought with them a sweeping sensation of confidence given how they were able to influence last year’s 32-20 Six Nations victory in Dublin as well as the record 57-15 win in August as part of their Japan 2019 warm-up matches.

“Manu is one of those players (who) players like playing with,” added Jones. “He brings a lot of confidence to the team, he’s got a nice manner about him, a nice demeanour. A smile on his face but when he hits he hits people hard, and he’s a great carrier with the ball when he’s at his best. His training this week’s been absolutely outstanding.

“I think he enjoys confrontation. It’s interesting Ireland have been playing the same play (as us) as their first play a lot of the time. We might race to see who’s going to play the play first.

“It definitely gives us more power and pace when we have got those two available.”

England have not been the only ones to endure an injury-disrupted build-up as Ireland coach Andy Farrell was forced into a change to his starting XV on Friday, with Iain Henderson ruled out following the birth of his and his wife’s son, meaning Devin Toner is promoted to lock alongside James Ryan and Ultan Dillane comes in among the replacements.

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