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England 'unbelievably hungry' - Farrell

England trio Mike Brown, Owen Farrell and Ben Te’o

Owen Farrell said England are “unbelievably hungry” to retain their Six Nations title and hit new heights under Eddie Jones.

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The holders are favourites to win the tournament for a third successive year ahead of their opening game against Italy in Rome on Sunday.

Ireland denied England back-to-back Grand Slams in Dublin last March and the two sides will meet in a potential decider at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day.

Farrell says the defending champions are raring to go as they attempt to maintain their momentum with a World Cup to come in Japan next year.

The versatile British and Irish Lion told Omnisport: “Our focus is completely on Italy. The first game is the most important.

“We need to make sure we prepare as best we can for that. I suppose our motivation is that we’re unbelievably hungry to perform well this year, to go after every team that’s in front of us.”

Asked about lessons learned from missing out on another Grand Slam last year, Farrell added: “[It will be] No different to what we’ve been doing, we just need to make sure we keep getting better. Keep improving. Keep staying hungry to kick on.”

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Full-back Mike Brown says England will not be taking perennial strugglers Italy lightly at Stadio Olimpico this weekend.

“They’ll be physical, they’ll have a lot of passion. Especially at home, first game of the tournament.” said Brown.

“A lot of people are writing them off and doubting they should be in the tournament, so they’ll want to throw that back in people’s faces. They have not beaten us in the tournament until now, so they’ll be desperate to do that. So we have to turn up with the right mindset and the right game plan to make sure we get the win.”

Centre Ben Te’o does not think Ireland are the only team capable of dethroning England.

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“I think that they’re [Ireland] a great team playing with some good form for their provinces.” said Te’o. “There are a lot of other teams that are tough.

“The French are tough, the Welsh. So I think it’s quite an open competition.”

 

– Dove Men+Care are a proud supplier of England Rugby.  #ScrumTogether @DoveMen.

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JW 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

13 Go to comments
F
Flankly 1 hour ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

11 Go to comments
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