Eddie Jones hails England display against Ireland: 'If it was cricket we would have declared'

Eddie Jones stated that his England side were in such a dominant position by half-time against Ireland that were it a cricket match he could have declared.

England scored three tries to beat Ireland 24-12 in the Six Nations on Sunday, but were 17-0 up at half-time thanks to tries from George Ford and Elliot Daly.

Ireland were stronger in the second half, but the final scoreline flattered them.

“I thought they were outstanding in that first 40 minutes, we put Ireland to the sword,” Jones said of England's performance.

“We played with a lot of control and read the conditions well. At half-time if it was a cricket game we would have declared.”

England face Wales at Twickenham in 13 days as they look to build a Six Nations title push.

“We are building up," Jones said.

"I got the preparation wrong for the France game and I apologise for that, but we were very good against Scotland and we took another step up today.

"We’ll take another step up again for Wales and we’ll need to be better.

"[The Wales game] is going to be fantastic. Wales have got a new coach [Wayne Pivac], they're playing a little different as we've seen and we're looking forward to hosting them here.

"There will be 81,000 [fans] waiting for them. We'll welcome them coming down the M4."