Neve Jones has said that the Ireland women's squad will take on England without fear.
The Irish team produced their most complete performance in recent seasons by recording a 36-5 victory over Wales at Virgin Media Park last weekend, outscoring them by five tries to one.
Attention now shifts to facing a very strong England squad, the top team in the Six Nations, at Twickenham. Ireland's previous two games against the English resulted in heavy defeats, with scores of 69-0 and 48-0.
When asked whether facing and overcoming the challenge of England was something the Ireland squad should dread, Jones disagreed. "I don’t think so," said the hooker. "We’re constantly growing as a team, and we’ll analyse them. We know what they bring. Last time, we still held them to the half.
"It’s just what happens after the half, and we’ll look at that this week and see what we can bring into that. I know quite a few of the English girls myself, and the same with the Welsh, so it’s always nice to play against teammates that you play with at the club, so we’re looking forward to it."
After a series of poor displays and heavy losses in the Six Nations, the victory over Wales last week provided a much-needed boost for the Irish team.
Jones expressed that the win against Wales was inevitable because of the hard work they have been putting in.
"I think we knew that it was coming; we just had to work hard together, and we’ve done so," she added. "We’re constantly pushing ourselves to be better, so it's just finally clicking, and it's nice to see and be part of it. We play rugby to win, and it's fantastic to see, and it just helps spur us on for the next game," she added.
"We came off a couple of good wins in [the WXV3 in] Dubai, and the management had come in, and all the little things like that have spurred us on. We've got to do our job when we take to the field, and we really did that [against Wales]."
The Ireland Wales game kicks off at 14:15 later today
