England’s players have been urged to show no mercy to France at Twickenham and to reach an even higher level than they achieved in their opening Six Nations game in Ireland last Saturday. The head coach, Eddie Jones, and the captain, Owen Farrell, both sense there is further improvement to be made and believe complacency will not be an issue.
Jones is adamant his side, showing two starting changes, will be more of a handful than they proved in their 32-20 Dublin victory. “I’ve got no doubt we’ll be better this week,” said Jones, having promoted Chris Ashton and Courtney Lawes to his starting XV in place of Jack Nowell and the injured Maro Itoje respectively. “Last week was just the start. This week our training has been of a much higher quality than we had in Portugal. I expect the team to take another step up.”
England have the force to see off France and show Dublin was no fluke | Robert Kitson
Farrell, who requires 15 points to overtake Jonny Wilkinson’s individual record in this fixture, is similarly keen for England to maintain their fast start against opponents who have not won a championship game at Twickenham since 2005. “We want to see where we can take things,” stressed Farrell. “We don’t want [just] to be good at stuff. There will be a lot we want to take to another level.
“It’s not written on a wall but we have not been hiding the fact we want to be the best team in the world. We have a long way to go to do that so we will always work hard, try and get the best out of each other and push ourselves to see where we can go. It’s not about Ireland any more, it’s about us moving forward. We feel like we are building something and getting better the more time we spend together.”
Jones has spoken before about the “shadows in the corners” that over-confidence can create but insists England will not be underestimating France despite the lavish praise his squad have been receiving in the past week.
“France are a difficult team. If you look back at the Wales game, they gifted Wales 14 points. Take 14 points out of the Wales total and France are the clear winners. There’s no reason for us not to be extremely focused. We’re always fighting complacency. Sometimes the shadows get a bit bigger and sometimes they’re smaller but they’re always there.”
England’s head coach is also banking on the recalled Ashton “to bring us something different we think is going to be valuable at the start of the game” in his first championship start since 2013, having appeared briefly from the bench last weekend. Jones does not believe, however, that the outcome will have a direct effect on England’s Rugby World Cup pool clash with France in Yokohama this autumn.
“It’s got no World Cup connotations,” he said. “It’s a one-off game. It’s like boxing a bloke twice; the only time it counts is when you’re in the ring that time. This is the only game that counts. We just have to be very well organised and absolutely brutal in our defence.”