Ireland keep powder dry as Eddie Jones’ war of words fails to ignite

The trouble with a war of words, as England head coach Eddie Jones is finding out ahead of Saturday’s Twickenham clash with Ireland, is you need two sides to fight it and the Irish camp are in no mood to take up arms. 

Twice since his England side made it two wins from two in the 2016 RBS 6 Nations with a victory in Rome 10 days ago, Jones has tried to throw some flames into the Twickenham cauldron ahead of his biggest coaching challenge since succeeding Stuart Lancaster.

And twice the bullish Australian has failed to get the reaction for which he had hoped.  Jones’ initial fishing expedition failed to get a bite out of opposite number Schmidt last week when he said England were preparing for an “Aussie Rules game” with the Irish, whom, he claimed, kicked 60% of their possession in order to turn the game into an aerial battle.