Beat Irish and this really is England’s

It may sound harsh, but I am 100 per cent certain that England 2017 are of the same mind-set. They would not want any of the 2003 side. That decision is not based on skill or talent, or on an ability to deliver in the professional era. The group who will face Ireland in Dublin today and stand on the brink of a record-breaking run of 19 games undefeated are more than capable of improving and challenging for the World Cup in Japan in 2019.

Rather, it is based on the spirit of the team, the events that shape your collective experiences, the tests that harden your resolve. You cannot replicate that bond and it binds you for ever. The respect, the commitment, the blood, the surgery; you have been through them all with the lads you stand alongside.

The question of choosing between those players from 2003 and those from 2017 is a laboured point. Ask me if I would like a game with Jonathan Joseph and Maro Itoje and I would bite your hand off. Equally, I would expect Ben Youngs to say he would like to have a run with Jonny Wilkinson at 10 and Lawrence Dallaglio in front of him at eight.

Mutual respect and admiration flows between great players. But put them in a corner and say who is better. It is always the lads with whom you have stared down defeat and pain, and fought with for victory.

Any team who want to make it into the history books must first write their own story and the current side are doing just that. They are a team who have built a winning mentality, coming through tough times and difficult games and finding ways to secure the result.

This proves they have built a deep level of trust, and this bond is going to be severely tested in Dublin. Ireland in St Patrick’s week, after the adrenalin rush of Cheltenham, and against a side with their backs against the wall, means that the last game of England’s 2017 Six Nations campaign is their toughest by far.

Forget the results, Ireland are a better side then their losses suggest. They have a point to prove, and we saw on Friday last week in Cardiff what desperation can do to a team’s cause. That night it was Wales who stood on the precipice, with many of their biggest players facing a summer watching the Lions on TV. On the night, Wales gave a furious account of themselves for 80 minutes. They were a runaway train at contact points and the big Welsh names demanded plane tickets to New Zealand.

Now it is Ireland’s turn to rebound. England will be their focus and it will be unlike anything