England out to fire opening salvo in Six Nations defence

England Six Nations players during training at Twickenham.

Who do you think will win the RBS 6 Nations? “He’s a leader for England, so I know that he will be there in the scrummaging and the rucks”.

“He’s a leader for Eddie Jones”.

Head coach Eddie Jones has made five changes to the starting XV that defeated Australia at the beginning of December, a victory that saw his side go unbeaten in the calendar year. “I would watch him play for France or Biarritz in the European Cup”, recalled Youngs.

How will your own country get on?

“It’s been brutal but it puts me in a good place”.

“He has heaps of potential and if you have a player with the mindset to get better every day then the world’s his oyster”.

Ireland v England. Dublin in March, the hotel prices are already soaring which shows you the demand so fingers crossed it all comes down to that.

“Traditionally they have got a very strong pack”. Owen Farrell (vice captain, Saracens, 47 caps), 11. “There’s always worldwide honours and things like that, so it’s always in the back of your mind”. And Nathan Hughes and Joe Marler are hardly likely to turn down the job of restoring forward motion. England won’t be looking too far past them to be honest. Bonus points do make predicting in what order that much more hard.

In 2015 Wales and Australia rampaged through Twickenham to knock England out of the World Cup they were hosting, but they have since amassed seven consecutive victories on home soil.

“I know that Dylan is seen as a controversial character in England, but I’ve played against him many times“, said Guirado. “Whether you were a scrum-half or a prop, everyone had the same shirts”.

“The U20 Six Nations is a fantastic opportunity for these players and management to continue their development on the worldwide stage.” said Dean Ryan, Head of global Player Development at the RFU.

Bordeaux Begles scrum-half Baptiste Serin has been handed his chance on the big stage by France coach Guy Noves in Saturday’s Twickenham clash.

And that was in the old Five Nations‚ when they played only four matches. This week’s references to past Anglo-French military conflicts are just another way of ensuring England’s forwards do not expect Novès’s team to be laissez-faire or purely fixated on flair.

Even though Dylan Hartley is potentially struggling for match fitness given his recent lack of game time thanks to yet another disciplinary issue and subsequent ban at club level, his leadership skills have been crucial to England’s success since Jones took over as coach in January 2016.

“Someone like him can ignite that and we are fully aware of what he can bring to the game and how we have to try to stop him”.

“England have said what they want to do, good for them.

It’ll be in the back of the mind and people will be asking about it all the time, but I think any global team will want to win that Six Nations, get that grand slam and then it should take care of itself”.