England have their shot at redemption, and Ireland at glory

Turmoil on and off the field and rampant visitors make this a defining moment in the Jones era

RUGBY CORRESPONDENT From Super Saturday to Salvation Saturday, England are heading into unfamiliar territory despite the home terrain of Twickenham. Far from tilting for a Grand Slam in a head-to-head with their jaunty opponents, England are looking for a measure of atonement and a restoration of credibility.

Under Eddie Jones, they have been used to wearing emperor’s clothes, regal and imperious, lording it over others. Across a crisislashed month, they have been stripped of that persona, revealed as mortal and vulnerable.

Appearance and reality is the motif of what is the most significant day in the England tenure of Eddie Jones. Can they regain their status or is the fall from grace to continue, putting any 2019 World Cup ambitions into serious review? A blip or a deep blob? England could finish the Natwest 2018 Six Nations as low as fifth in the table, an unprecedented and calamitous state of affairs. It would be a stain on all their CVS. Factor in, too, the furore round Jones’s cack-handed comments about Wales and Ireland last summer and a perfect storm begins to gather over Twickenham.

All of which is the flip situation for Ireland. With sweeping success registered at Cheltenham and St Patrick’s Day to toast, the Irish fans arrive at Twickenham primed to salute their emerald heroes and perhaps to celebrate only a third Grand Slam in their history.

That the 2009 golden generation of the O Boys, O’driscoll, O’connell and O’gara, have been so quickly replenished with the likes of halfbacks Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray, tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong, a rejuvenated Keith Earls and tyro flyer Jacob Stockdale is quite something. There were 61 years between the previous Irish Slams and, quite rightly, there were taunts of under-achievement levelled at Ireland. Not so under Joe Schmidt, who has helped win three championship titles in his five years. A