The England blueprint: 'We have been trying to attack like this since the autumn'

Ben Youngs views the gripping Guinness Six Nations victory over France as the blueprint for how England must play in every Test. A fortnight after conceding the title in Cardiff, Eddie Jones’ men rescued their championship from disaster by edging the tournament favourites 23-20 at Twickenham.

The quality of the England performance has helped ease the crushing Six Nations disappointment of losing to Wales and Scotland and, with Ireland to come on Saturday, Youngs is eager to finish the campaign with a flourish. “The balance against France was about right and that’s a really good blueprint of what we want look like consistently,” Youngs said.

“We’re trying to get that balance right. We probably haven’t hit the heights in our defence that we normally have – we still want to put teams under a huge amount of pressure through our defence. The France game wasn’t a case of rewriting the script on a Monday because we have been trying to attack like this since the autumn.

“The balance of run, kick, pass and counter-attack was really good. That blend seemed to click nicely and I felt like everyone was pushing on every phase.

“We have got an opportunity to do it again next week. We would love to be going to Dublin with something to win, but we’ll still be there, fully committed and trying to build on what we did against France.”