'Complete' Ireland attack will test England defence to the max, insists Felix Jones

The former Munster and Ireland full-back will be coaching against the country of his birth for the third time.

80-MINUTE PERFORMANCE: England defence coach Felix Jones. Pic: Harry Murphy, Sportsfile

Felix Jones has admitted his work as England defence coach will be tested to the max by Ireland’s “complete attack” in Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash.

The former Munster and Ireland full-back, who joined Steve Borthwick’s England staff after helping South Africa to back-to-back World Cup wins last October, will be coaching against the country of his birth for the third time when the 2023 Grand Slam winners visit Twickenham in search of a championship record 12th consecutive victory.

As the Springboks’ defence coach, Jones narrowly lost twice to Andy Farrell’s side, 19-16 in Dublin in November 2022 and last September in a 13-8 World Cup pool defeat at Stade de France and he is not expecting his task to get any easier this weekend as he beds in a new blitz defensive system after working with England for just a number of weeks in 2024.

“Yeah it will be considerable, because Ireland are a great team, their record speaks for itself,” Jones said on Friday following England’s Twickenham training session.

“I think it’s two games in 22 that they’ve lost, so their ability to score tries from all over the field is impressive to see, the skill sets of the players, forwards, backs every single player is an option, a passing option. They’ve multiple players at the line, behind the line, kicking options. So they’ve a very complete attack.

“We’ve got to be on it for 80 minutes, because a single lapse, Ireland have shown repeatedly they’ve the capability to cut you open. But on top of that it’s not just one department, the entire gameplan needs to come together to put Ireland under pressure.” 

England come into Saturday’s round-four fixture looking to atone for a much-criticised performance last time in a 30-21 Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh and with few in the English media giving them any hope of upsetting the odds and scoring a first win over Ireland since November 2020, following four consecutive defeats.

“The mood’s been good,” Jones said. “We’ve trained well, everyone’s come through fit in the back-end of the week.

“So we’re hoping to put in an 80-minute performance, that’s something we feel we probably haven’t put together yet in the three games. So that’s a big focus for us to try to tie it all together tomorrow.”