Monday 13 March 2017 11:36, UK
Billy Vunipola insists England are ready to achieve the "greatness" demanded by Eddie Jones as they look to complete a remarkable revival since their 2015 World Cup failure.
Victory over Ireland would secure back-to-back Grand Slams in the climax to the Six Nations next Saturday and England head to Dublin having being crowned champions with a round to spare for a second successive year.
A win over Joe Schmidt's men would see England eclipse New Zealand's milestone of 18 consecutive Test victories less than 18 months since suffering a group exit from their own World Cup, but Vunipola wants the transformation to continue by repeating the Grand Slam.
"Do we want to make the next step or start again from the bottom?" the Saracens No 8 said. "We've come a long way. I think Eddie and his coaching staff have pushed us massively to a goal at which everyone would have laughed at the end of the World Cup, but now it's realistic.
"The Grand Slam was our goal at the start of the tournament and we're firmly pushing towards it. I would probably say the Ireland game is more mental than physical because we have never been in this position before, whereby we can push even further on.
"It's a big occasion next week. It's the day after St Patrick's Day, it is going to be very, very emotional so we are going to have to turn up with the right mindset to try to negate everything Ireland are going to bring on the mental side of things."
England are still short of fulfilling their stated aim of becoming the game's dominant force, but head coach Jones said after Saturday's 61-21 demolition of Scotland that his players now had a "fantastic opportunity" to achieve "greatness", and Vunipola insists they are edging ever closer to achieving their lofty ambitions.
He said: "It all joins up. If you win 19 games on the trot, you are pushing it. We know we're not number one yet but we want to do things within our power to show we are serious about this goal."
Vunipola played almost half an hour in the win over Scotland in his first international appearance since recovering from the knee injury sustained during the autumn and was given a warm reception by the Twickenham crowd as he replaced Nathan Hughes.
"I never expected anything like that reception. I was just happy to be back on the pitch with the boys. We have a great crowd here at Twickenham," Vunipola said.
"It's very humbling to get them cheering me like that, although I believe it was more for Nathan Hughes coming off because he had a stormer. I was just happy to add and help the team in any way I could."
Jonathan Joseph scored three of his side's seven tries against Scotland on Saturday and, although it was probably the finest attacking display of Jones' 17 matches in charge, he has warned England's rivals that there is more to come.
"I felt we clicked very well as a team. Everything seemed to work from one to 15," Joseph said. "That's what I think this England team's capable of, but we've still got room to improve. That's just a taster of what this team can do.
"We know what we're capable of doing when we get it right - the tempo, how it started with the set-piece and the tempo 9-10-12 created. It's very hard to defend when you're running holes like that. It's almost impossible if you get it right."
