Marcus Smith says England’s under-fire rugby squad must stay tight and not allow scathing criticism to fracture team morale.
Steve Borthwick’s team are reeling from England’s biggest ever home defeat and now travel to Ireland to face the world’s best side.
The potential for further humiliation is real with fans of the Grand Slam-chasing Irish baying for blood on St Paddy’s Day weekend.
Another monstering would blow to smithereens what is left of England’s self-belief ahead of this autumn’s World Cup.
Fly-half Smith has revealed that the players warned each other of the danger of allowing incoming fire to break team spirit.
“There’s going to be a lot of noise and a lot of pressure on us,” said the Harlequins star. “And we’ve got to become tighter as opposed to splinter.
“This is a big test of our togetherness as a squad, of our resolve. We’re in a tough period at the minute. We’ve got to keep our heads high.”
France’s seven-try thrashing exposed a power issue in the England team, which will not be helped by centre Ollie Lawrence missing the trip to Ireland with a hamstring injury.
Opportunity knocks for Manu Tuilagi, having been omitted from the first four rounds, and prove he still deserves his ‘wrecking ball’ status.
The Sale star’s four-match ban ended at the weekend and he joins Leicester’s Guy Porter in battling for the vacated No.12 shirt.
Also back in contention is fit-again Ollie Hassell-Collins, while George Ford returns to challenge Smith and Owen Farrell for the keys to No.10.
Smith said: “We’ve got to bounce back, get better quick, because the challenge doesn’t come much greater than Ireland away.
“There’s only one way to go and it’s to stand up and fight and play as hard as we can for the shirt.
“We need to learn quicker, improve quicker - that’s the challenge Steve has given us. We’ve all got to improve on our collisions, one to 23, step up a gear. Time is against us, but I believe we’ve still got time.”
Ireland will be without Garry Ringrose (head injury) and Iain Henderson (fractured forearm), who underwent surgery yesterday. Robbie Henshaw will replace Ringrose with Ryan Baird set to partner James Ryan in the second row.
England must win to avoid a losing Six Nations record for a third straight year - a dismal state of affairs for the world’s richest and best resourced rugby nation.
“The key thing is to not look at the [France] result,” Smith said. “That is done. We need to look at each moment in the game, see what we could have been 10 per cent better at.
“There’s going to be a lot of talk this week about the result, this, that and the other, but we’ve got to look at the performance.”
