Rory Best said he has no intention of using Eddie Jones’s “scummy Irish” comments in his pre-match team talk on Saturday and plans to focus instead on ensuring Ireland do not go into their shells at England’s “big fortress”.
Best is one of only two members of his side to have won a grand slam – alongside Rob Kearney in 2009 – but to achieve a second, he must captain Ireland to a first win at Twickenham since 2010. The 35-year-old admitted there is a certain fear factor that comes with the chance to make history – Ireland have won the Grand Slam only twice before – and so he will not be incorporating Jones’s derogatory comments at a sponsor event into his final words of wisdom.
“If we start to get distracted with a sideshow like that it takes us away from what is important to us,” he said. “[I’ll] just be making sure they don’t go into their shells. It needs 15 big performances and what better opportunity to produce that. There’s a lot of nervous energy around. There’s always a fear factor when you play international rugby because you are playing the best in the world. We’ll always have the consolation prize of a championship but we want to push on and achieve something special.”
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Best also expects England to improve markedly on home turf after the deposed champions suffered consecutive away defeats but hopes the anticipated vast number of travelling supporters can make an impact. Ireland have been allocated 5,000 tickets but the number of away fans attending is likely to be at least double that when other sales are taken into account – not least with Cheltenham Festival coming to an end on Friday.
“It’s incredibly tough to win here,” Best said. “This place is a big fortress. There’s no point trying to hide from that, it’s a massive challenge for us to make sure we get the Irish, some of whom will wander down from Cheltenham, standing on their feet.
“We’re going to assume England are going to play to the level that we expect them to … as one of the top two or three teams in the world.”