Ellis Genge has spoken about England’s plans (Image: Getty)
Ellis Genge was in fighting mood as he laid down the challenge to ahead of their showdown in Dublin.
The prop, a vice-captain behind new leader Maro Itoje, insisted the side are ready to put everything on the line as they attempt to derail the favourites.
And Genge has pledged travelling fans his side will leave nothing out on the Aviva Stadium pitch as they attempt to overturn the odds on Saturday.
He said: “You can really feel the fans when we’re putting our all into the game, whether we’re winning our losing, if they see us fighting for every inch and scrapping on the pitch.
“Even in the autumn when we lost quite narrowly to a few teams, you got messages and comments from fans – they say thank you for fighting tooth and nail. I think that’s a trait of an Englishman, fighting for the scraps and having a never-say-die attitude.”
Ireland were weakened in the week when Lions tight-head Tadhg Furlong was ruled out of the game with a calf injury meaning loose-head Genge will be toe-to-toe with Finlay Bealham.
Steve Borthwick is hoping to lead England to victory over Ireland (Image: Getty)
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And Genge can spy a chink in the Irish armour with Furlong, one of the leading No.3s in the world, absent.
“Tadhg has been one of their more cemented players in their pack, the cornerstone in recent years,” he said. “He is a world beater in his own right so you can’t sit here and say that he won’t be missed.” England’s never-say-die attitude did not bear fruit in the autumn series as England failed to get tight games over the line.
Genge added: “We go out on the pitch every single time and give it our all. Unfortunately, sometimes the stars don’t align in that sense and they definitely didn’t in the autumn. We would have liked to have been four from four in the autumn, but we weren’t. We were one from four.”