Heaslip calls for follow-up performance

Jamie Heaslip has challenged his players to back up victory over Wales last week with another big performance against England tomorrow as Ireland strive to be regarded as one of the best teams in the world.

The Ireland captain has experienced at first hand the disappointment of following an impressive win with a deflating defeat, not least when victory over Australia in the 2011 World Cup pool was undone by a meek loss to Wales in the quarter-finals.

Having finally ended a three-game losing streak to the Welsh with an opening 2013 RBS 6 Nations win in Cardiff last Saturday, Heaslip now wants Ireland to prove their consistency at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow.

“We strive to be consistently good. This season we have put a massive emphasis on our training every day,” Heaslip said.

“If we train at a high standard there’s more of a chance that we’ll play well at the weekend. Train as you play is an old mantra my dad used to beat into me.”

Citing the World Cup games against Australia and Wales and also last summer’s Test series in New Zealand, when one strong performance in defeat was sandwiched between heavy losses, Heaslip added: “We’re quite focused on the now.

“We can’t go back in time. We’re focused on consistently training well. We want to be up there with the best in the world. That’s where we want to be.”

Heaslip leads an unchanged squad from the 23 which beat Wales 30-22, while England are forced into one change from the side which beat Scotland 38-18 at Twickenham seven days ago with James Haskell coming into the back row in place of the injured Ben Morgan.

There is no change in midfield with Leicester’s Manu Tuilagi having to settle for a place on the bench after recovering from an ankle injury that caused him to miss the Calcutta Cup match.