Gatland tells Jones loss could start a slide

Kiwi Warren Gatland turned up the heat on under-fire England coach Eddie Jones, saying his side must win their final Six Nations game or risk a long losing streak.

Wales boss Gatland didn’t hold back when quizzed about Jones, whose England side have lost back-to-back Six Nations matches against Scotland (25-13) and France (22-16).

Gatland believes England have to win their final match against champions Ireland – unbeaten this year – at Twickenham tomorrow.

‘‘The pressure for England isn’t

about the comments, the pressure for England is on winning on Saturday,’’ Gatland told The Telegraph.

‘‘They have to win. That’s how important the game is to them because if England lose against Ireland then they have three games against South Africa [on the summer tour] and they could go from a losing streak of two to six pretty quickly. They have got their own things to sort out.’’

England have lost back-to-back games under Jones for the first time, a year after matching New Zealand’s record of 18 consecutive wins for a tier-one nation. They were defeated seven times in succession in 2006.

Jones made headlines this week after the emergence of video featuring the Australian calling Wales ‘‘a little s... place’’ and labelling the Irish as ‘‘scummy’’.

He has since apologised for his remarks and said he shouldn’t have made them.

Gatland, whose side host France in Cardiff tomorrow, wasn’t concerned.

‘‘What Eddie said is not offensive to us.

‘‘These sorts of things happen. We all say things behind closed doors, talking about ourselves and other nations. I have said on a couple of occasions, if he gets the opportunity [with the Lions] he will do a good job.’’

Wales are poised to finish second if they beat France, which Gatland said would be some achievement after their disappointing fifth-place finish in 2017.

‘‘Coming second in the table would be massive for us.’’