Record books mean nothing to Robshaw

England’s new boys have nothing to fear from Ireland or their country’s poor home record against today’s visitors to Twickenham, captain Chris Robshaw and coach Andy Farrell insisted yesterday.

Ireland have won at Twickenham on three of their last four visits and overall have only been beaten once by England in the previous eight Six Nations encounters, a 33-10 away defeat in 2008 that marked the end of the Eddie O’Sullivan era.

None of that matters a jot to a freshly assembled England squad intent on consigning the awful memories of the previous regime’s World Cup campaign to the dustbin under caretaker head coach Stuart Lancaster.