‘England will be hard to beat’ Hansen insists

coach, Steve Hansen, has also suggested England should not be written off despite their sub-par Six Nations campaign. “England are still England; they can still pop up and they’ve got plenty of talent,” Hansen said.

“Early in the game against Ireland they played well, and if they take that sort of form into the World Cup, they’ll be a hard team to beat. It’s an interesting time. The two coaches who got sacked from England and Wales [Eddie Jones and Wayne Pivac] will be looking back thinking, ‘Well, there you go. It wasn’t just the coaches, was it?’”

Hansen has also questioned whether the extra pressure that comes with being the world’s No 1-ranked side might cause Ireland to choke when the tournament kicks off in September. Hansen, who will be coaching the World XV against the Barbarians at Twickenham on 28 May, said: “It’s a tough tournament to win and they were No 1 going into the last one, weren’t they?

“So they’ve seemed to struggle a little bit at World Cups. If it was the All Blacks they’d probably be called ‘chokers’. But they’ve come a long way, they believe in themselves and they’re a very good side so they’re a contender. But they’ll have to overcome the pressure of not having gone past the quarter-finals and there’ll be a lot of pressure involved in that.”

Three of Ireland’s title-winning side, meanwhile, have made the shortlist for the Six Nations player of the year award. Caelan Doris, Hugo Keenan and Mack Hansen are joined on the list of nominees by Thomas Ramos, Damian Penaud and Antoine Dupont, who won the award last season. The winner will be decided via an online fan vote which closes at 6pm tomorrow.

‘In tough times you have no choice but to learn’ Manu Tuilagi England centre