ENGLAND CAPTAIN JAMIE George has called on his players to defend their home patch as he insisted they believe they can stop Ireland’s bid for a Grand Slam.
Andy Farrell’s team have beaten the English the last four times they’ve played and are 12-point favourites for tomorrow’s Six Nations clash at Twickenham.
England have been written off in the wake of their disappointing performance in defeat to Scotland two weekends ago, having notched narrow wins over Italy and Wales in the opening two rounds of the championship.
But George said the English squad believe they have what it takes to beat Ireland tomorrow.
“We believe that we’re going to go out there and win,” said George. “We don’t want anyone, any opposition, to come to Twickenham and have an easy ride.
“We have respect for them. I can’t emphasise enough how much respect we have for Andy Farrell and Peter O’Mahony’s team. They’ve got brilliant players across the board.
“But this is England. This is Twickenham. This is home. And we’re going to defend our home like every Englishman would.”
Being underdogs in London against Ireland is a strange position for England to find themselves in but George hopes they embrace that status.
“I think historically it has worked well for us,” said the England skipper. “I think you look at the big performances in the World Cups. If you look at the World Cup just gone, no one gave us a chance against Argentina, no one gave us a chance against South Africa.
“I know the South Africa result didn’t go the way we wanted to but again the sort of performance showed the sort of team that we wanted to be. I think fundamentally we don’t want to go in with an underdog title ever when we’re playing at Twickenham.
“But at the same time we’re playing against a very, very good team, the best team in the world who we have the utmost respect for.”
George’s counterpart, Peter O’Mahony, was quick to distance Ireland from the excitement that has grown about the prospect of them winning back-to-back Grand Slams.
Farrell’s side have impressed with bonus-point wins over France, Italy, and Wales, which means they can clinch another clean sweep by beating England tomorrow and Scotland back in Dublin next weekend.
“It’s not something that we really buy into,” said O’Mahony of Ireland being labelled big favourites.
“I know you’re probably sick of hearing it from me but it’s a Test match tomorrow, Ireland versus England. It’s about who plays better tomorrow. It’s not about anything else. It’s not about previous form or where you stand, it’s about who plays better tomorrow and that’s something that we’ve always been focused on, our performance.
“We know if we play well tomorrow, we’ll be in with a shout. But if we don’t fire, this English team has incredible quality and can beat anyone on their day.
“It’s not long ago they were competing in the last two games of the World Cup. We know we’re in for a huge test tomorrow here at Twickenham as always.”
O’Mahony and George are close friends after first getting to know each other on the 2017 Lions tour, but they’ve put that to one side for now.
“No, we haven’t,” said O’Mahony when asked if they had been in touch this week.
“I’m certainly very good friends with him. But it’s a business week and he’s in the same boat.”
