Jamie George hopeful of England winning Six Nations

England captain Jamie George said his side will embrace the little chance of winning the ongoing Six Nations tournament as they face France in the final round on Saturday.

Ireland are the favourites to retain the title with 16 points from four games and even a losing bonus point against Scotland in the final fixture will take them through due to the superior point difference.

However, England fought back hard to hand Ireland their only defeat in the competition last weekend to keep their slim hope alive and George insisted that his side will come out hard against France irrespective of the result in the other encounter.

“You end up ignoring it, but I always think the elephant in the room in professional sport, sometimes you might brush things under the carpet a bit,” he said.

“But why? Let’s talk about what the possibilities are, but also not allow it to distract you.

“What might happen in the Ireland-Scotland game is out of our control, but we can use the possibility of winning a trophy as motivation that we’re in the right headspace.

"We’ll know what is happening — you’d be lying if you said you weren’t going to be watching that game.”

England endured a tough phase with a number of key internationals announcing retirement after the World Cup while regular skipper Owen Farrell also announced his move to French club Racing 92. Steve Borthwick's men also had their fair issue with injuries and were relieved to have the services of Marcus Smith and Alex Mitchell in the game against Ireland.

“In terms of achievements, winning now would be the greatest achievement of my England career so far, just because we have not won this tournament for a while,” added George.