England will be motivated to spoil Ireland's Grand Slam hope - Sam Simmonds

Exeter Chiefs back-row Sam Simmonds insisted that England will be motivated to spoil Ireland's Grand Slam hopes as the two teams meet at Twickenham Stadium for the final round of the Six Nations Championship.

Ireland have already clinched the Championship with four straight wins in the tournament and are just one win away from securing the Grand Slam only for the third time in the history.

Last year, England headed to Dublin for the final round of the Six Nations 2017 but their hope of a Grand Slam and also a record-winning streak of 18 was ended by Joe Schmidt's side, who emerged victorious with a 13-9 margin and Simmonds is hoping to return back the favour on Saturday.

“There are boys here who are experienced and have played good Ireland teams in the past,” Simmonds said.

“Looking back on last year and losing in Ireland, that will be an incentive to push on this weekend.

“If we perform well we know results do come from that. Hopefully, we put on a good performance for the Twickenham crowd.”

Having entered the tournament as the favourites, England missed out on the opportunity to win the Six Nations for third consecutive time and now might even end in the bottom half of the table following defeats to Scotland and France but the 23-year-old insisted that the red rose team is desperate to return back to winning ways.

“We have a job to do because to owe ourself and our fans. We want to keep our record going and be the dominant force and put our game on this Irish side,” Simmonds said.

“We are not happy with performances and results of the last couple of weeks, but it’s a huge game against Ireland and we are all pushing in the right direction.

“I think this week’s preparation will go towards showing what we can do as a team and how much it will mean to us.”

The defeats in the previous two rounds have exposed England's breakdown shortcomings with Eddie Jones even claiming that it might not be until the 2019 World Cup, they might be able to sort out the issue.

Simmonds is set to return to number eight for the Twickenham clash taking the place of injured Nathan Hughes and he is keen to play a key role in addressing their shortcomings in breakdowns.

“It’s frustrating, but it can only be improved by us. We know we have to be better at it and that comes with your speed into the breakdown,” Simmonds said.

“We have talked about pushing more players towards it, but it’s also an individual thing with your mindset and physicality about how fast you get to those areas to remove and almost stop the threat.

“We put a massive emphasis to stop that threat. You have to be there in a split second or you lose the ball.

“It’s frustrating losing the ball and turnovers do happen. There are mistakes, it is just how you react from that.”

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