‘We must show pride against Ireland’

the world rankings are updated today, are chasing what would be only the third clean sweep in their history. But May, England’s tryscorer at the Stade de France, said: “People support us and we have an opportunity when we wear that shirt to inspire them and it hasn’t been good enough in the last couple of weeks. We will be more focused on showing pride. It is not a case of stopping them. We haven’t shown what we can do in the last couple of weeks so we want to play the way we know we can.”

England coach Jones, left, will be without back-rows Nathan Hughes and Courtney Lawes, who both sustained knee injuries against France – Exeter’s Don Armand was called up last night – and could make other changes too.

Jones said yesterday the players were “very down” after failing to put right the wrongs of Edinburgh against a ragbag France side big on emotion but short on cohesion. England coughed up 16 penalties against next year’s World Cup group opponents, the majority at the breakdown.

“I’m worried about the breakdown, we’ve got to sort out the breakdown and find ways of getting quick ball,” said Jones.

But he insists there will be no panic having won 25 of his first 26 games in charge before the downturn of the past three weeks.

“We’ve lost two games of rugby – one by a hair’s breadth today and the other one we were outplayed, so I don’t see any cycle,” said Jones.

“If we’d had a bit of luck against France, we’d have won the game.”