England have flown into a wintry Dublin firmly believing they can kick off the Six Nations by overpowering Ireland on the opening weekend. With Manu Tuilagi set to start in the championship for the first time in six years, their head coach, Eddie Jones, insists the visitors can upset the defending champions and register a first victory at the Aviva Stadium since 2013.
No one in the England setup expects anything but a brutally tough contest on Saturday but Jones, having retained Elliot Daly at full-back and opted for the Saracens lineout specialist George Kruis in the second row, insists his team should not be cast as underdogs in Dublin. “I’d hate to go into a game thinking we weren’t better than the opposition, that we need surprises or tricks to win the game,” said Jones. “We don’t need that. Praise can make you weak but the good teams always expect to win and play well and that’s what we are.”
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England, nevertheless, are braced for a serious examination at the breakdown and in the air, with Exeter’s Jack Nowell picked on the wing in anticipation of a fiercely physical contest. “He’s a street-fighter, mate,” said Jones. “When you go to Dublin it’s not going to be a nice game. It’s going to be a tough old match. It is well documented no one thinks we can win but I can tell you everyone inside our camp believes we can.”
Give or take the unfit Ben Te’o, who would have played had he not suffered a side strain in training, this is definitely not an England side lacking in physical clout. The pack collectively weighs almost 150 stone and never before have England been able to field two Vunipolas, Maro Itoje and Tuilagi in the same XV.
With Owen Farrell starting at fly-half and the rumbustious ball-carrying trio of Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Nathan Hughes on the bench it is a side well equipped for a slugfest but Jones is equally aware of the need for precision in certain key areas, not least beneath the inevitable high balls set to be hoisted into the Dublin sky by Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton.
Will it all be sufficient to beat last year’s grand slam winners? Amid all the bullish rhetoric it is easy to forget Tuilagi’s last four Test starts for England have all ended in defeat and that he has never started alongside Henry Slade in a competitive fixture. Even those who have argued for the past three or four years that Slade and Tuilagi would make a perfect midfield combo would ideally have preferred their first date to be somewhere other than Dublin against settled, tactically savvy Irish opponents.
Slade, even so, can hardly disguise his excitement. “I’ve played most of my best rugby when I’ve had a centre partnership where we complement each other. If you want a big carrier winning collisions in tight traffic then I’m not your man – but those are Manu’s strengths and hopefully my strengths cover his weaknesses as well. It’s a good match. If you run into him you get smoked. His legs are so big … when I play against him and try to tackle him I just grab one of them.”
It all makes for an enticing prospect which could shape the entire tournament.
With Newcastle’s Mark Wilson moving to blindside flanker, there are a total of six changes and one positional switch from the starting England side that beat Australia 37-18 in November, plus a potential first cap off the bench for the Wasps scrum-half Dan Robson.
Jones fully anticipates Ireland being smart and resourceful – “It’s not the old kick-off, distract the referee and then put the boot in … that’s not the sort of rugby it is anymore” – but his heavy-duty England selection will not surrender meekly.