New captain Maro Itoje says England ‘ready to go’ as they target Ireland upset

Maro Itoje says England are “ready to go” as they target an upset victory over Ireland that would launch their Guinness Six Nations in style.

Itoje leads the team for the first time after taking over the captaincy from Jamie George and has been presented with a daunting first assignment against the champions in Dublin on Saturday.

But the Saracens second row insists that England have the firepower to take on the Six Nations favourites.

“We’ve prepared well, the boys have trained well and we’ve come together quite nicely. We’re clear on the plan. We’re ready to go,” Itoje said.

“It’s a really big task. Obviously Ireland are a very good team. They’re a team that in their recent history have put together a string of notable performances.

“They have quality players and continuity, more so than most other nations due to the Leinster connection.

“They’re a team full of good players and they have that strong Leinster core to what they do and their selection.

“It’s a team that’s played together before, a team that know what they’re about. But we’re a good team too.”

England have taken the bold step of picking three opensides in their back row with Tom and Ben Curry flanking number eight Ben Earl.

It is a loose trio that can take Ireland on at the breakdown and look to gain an edge on the hosts through work rate and mobility, but a concern is that their selection denies the team an extra line-out option at blindside flanker.

For the last two Six Nations England have possessed the most successful line-out and Itoje is confident it will continue to deliver, even without the extra target for hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie.

“We have enough line-out jumpers. The line-out is a massive part of the game and we have a well-oiled machine,” Itoje said.

“If you were to look at our statistics over the last autumn, it’s an area that we’re pretty strong at in terms of ball winning.

“Ireland have got a good line-out, they’ve always had a good line-out. We’re built differently, we want to go about the game in a different way, but the set-piece is massive for us as well and I think we’ll do well.”

They were picked in the same matchday 23 against New Zealand last autumn but Tom, who starts at blindside flanker on Saturday, was replaced by Ben around the hour mark.

“It’s really exciting. I’ve wanted to play with Tom for a long time. It’s one of those ones where it’s really nice in the build-up, really nice before it,” Ben Curry said.

“And I’m sure it’ll be really nice after the final whistle, but between the whistles you just want to win.”