England head coach Eddie Jones is expecting Ireland to bounce back from last weekend's loss against Wales while his side are treating this weekend's clash like a World Cup final.
Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “For us everything’s about the World Cup. If you look at where we are now, we’ve been together approximately eight weeks. You’re together eight or nine weeks to get to a World Cup final. When you get to the World Cup final, no one’s 100%. Everyone’s carrying injuries.
“It’s the team that prepares with the mind-set that nothing’s going to stop them being at their best that wins the World Cup. You want to develop a winning mentality. It’s a great dress rehearsal for us for the World Cup. All these milestones along the way are nice but they’re not things that we cherish. It’s what we do in the future that matters.”
Jones expects Ireland to rebound from their loss against Wales saying: "Ireland will come with a lot of emotion. Disappointment builds aggression. We’ve seen how Wales came back after losing to Scotland so we expect Ireland to be like that. We have to be more aggressive, more emotional in the right way, more committed as well as smart and skilful."
England are also looking to overtake New Zealand's 18 match winning run and victory in Dublin will see them overtake that milestone.
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