England coach Eddie Jones believes Kyle Sinckler and Ellis Genge are still far from the finished article but can inspire a generation of new rugby players as the world’s best props.
The pair have been the mainstay of the England front row in their three matches to date in this year’s Six Nations. But Jones predicted there was more to come from Sinckler, who earned his 50th international cap against Wales, and Genge, who will be club mates at Bristol next season.
“I think his [Sinckler’s] development as a player… at Harlequins to evolve to 50 caps, two Lions tour player is an outstanding achievement,” said Jones. “It shows his resilience and desire to keep getting better. There’s no reason why in the next two games he can’t get better than he has done.
“Ellis Genge is showing the same kind of desire. But they’re probably still only 60 to 70 per cent of where they can be. Our job is to find that extra 20 to 30 per cent.
“And imagine those two being the best one and three in the world, showing young kids about the ability to make it out of non-rugby backgrounds.”
England have had a mixed Six Nations to date. They narrowly lost their opener against Scotland before beating Italy comfortably and then holding off a Wales comeback to make it two wins from three outings, leaving them third in the table behind leaders France and Ireland.
Jones is not expected to make wholesale changes for the visit of the Irish to Twickenham, with Harry Randall and Marcus Smith set to continue their burgeoning half-back pairing.
Smith has been arguably England’s revelation of the tournament and Jones said he was confident that, for all his attacking flair, he would also turn into a world-class defender in the future.
“He’s coming along really well,” said the Australian of his No10. “He’s learning as a young and relatively small 10 how to make the right tackle selection. These young 10s all get tested out. They find a way to become a good defender, and Marcus will do that.”
Jones’ nine and 10 are part of a new-look England side from the last Six Nations when they had looked in contention until being comprehensively beaten by Ireland in their final game.
Just six players from the starting lineup in that match a year ago were in the XV to take on Wales last week.
And Jones said of that match: “I think it indicated we’d run our race with that group of players and we had to move on. We came off a good win against France and had the chance to finish off the tournament well and didn’t do that. That was disappointing.
“We’re a young but very good team. Our best is yet to come. We’re building in the right direction.”
