England ‘will form bulk of Lions squad’

THERE could be up to 15 England players in the British and Irish Lions squad for next year’s tour to New Zealand, according to Eddie Jones.

Jones has masterminded 13 consecutive wins since replacing Stuart Lancaster as England boss and the latest triumph came on Saturday when Australia were crushed 37-21 at Twickenham.

That completed an unbeaten calendar year, the first time since 1992 England have achieved the feat, and means Jones’ men will go into next season’s Six Nations as favourites to retain their title.

Jones thinks a successful Six Nations will see England’s players dominate Warren Gatland’s Lions team.

“The Lions selection will be based almost entirely on what happens in the Six Nations. I think if we have a dominant Six Nations I would expect anywhere from 10 to 15 of our players to be in the Lions squad,” he said yesterday.

When pressed on how many players were likely to be in the starting lineup, Jones said: “I’ll leave that to Warren Gatland but a number of players have put up their hand strongly.

“I think you have guys who went on the last Lions tour like Dan Cole, Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell [who] will be at the head of the queue.”

Saturday saw Farrell land all of his six goal-kicks despite not being fully fit in Jones’s view.

“Owen is the spirit of the team. He’s enormous for us. He’s the standard bearer,” Jones said.

England’s win on Saturday saw them equal their national record of 14 successive test victories set by Clive Woodward’s World Cup winners in 2002-03.

It also meant Australian coach Jones’ first year as England boss finished with a perfect played 13, won 13 record.

England won despite the absence of injured first-choice forwards Billy Vunipola, James Haskell and Maro Itoje.

But Jones warned that no one owned an England shirt.

“If you don’t keep performing, you won’t be in the team.

“If players aren’t hungry and you see that in their performance straight away, they won’t be here,” he said.

“We have enough depth to change the squad if we need to.”

The Lions will play three tests against New Zealand, the first on June 24 in Auckland.