Jones questions Ireland's ability to stand up to England's physicality

England head coach Eddie Jones has been busy in the press this week, first talking up Ireland as favourites and then suggesting that Andy Farrell’s men would be chased all over the park at Twickenham. 

Jones’ latest question mark over the Irish team has to do with whether they will be able to stand up to England’s physicality on Saturday, claiming that, in recent years, they have not locked horns with a truly physically powerful outfit. 

 "Ireland haven't played against a team like us before - they haven't played against South Africa since 2017," Jones said. 

"We played against South Africa last year and did well in those physical stakes, so we intend to really take it to them. 

"We play with a physicality they haven't seen before. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do on Saturday. 

"We have one intention in this game and that's to go after Ireland. We are going to chase them hard down the street. 

"Everywhere they go, we're going to be in their faces and we're going to take time and space away from them. Do we enjoy that challenge? Yes. 

"This team don't know how good they can be and we are certainly going to find out on Saturday how good we can be." 

England stuttered in the opening round of the tournament with a loss to Scotland at Murrayfield but have since managed to secure victories against Italy and the Welsh and thus carry some winning momentum into this fixture. 

England’s attack has been under the spotlight of late with the evolution thereof evident but only at times. Jones, however, says that fruition is around the corner. 

"We're not far away. We're one pass, one accurate kick, one good support line away from being very good. But we're a work in progress," he said. 

"We're really pleased with the way it's going, but it's not converting into tries when the game's always about scoring tries. But that will come. 

"We'd like it to be this weekend but if not it might be next weekend. If it's not next weekend it might be on the Australia tour. But it's coming. 

"It's like that wave coming in. You can see it coming in and all of a sudden it crashes and all this power comes out of it. That's what we'll be like."