Eddie Jones claimed England were so dominant in their 24-12 victory over Ireland that they could have declared at half-time.

England surged up to second in the Guinness Six Nations table after George Ford, Elliot Daly and Luke Cowan-Dickie ran in tries in a one-sided demolition at Twickenham that saw the hosts lead 17-0 at half-time.

It was a performance that had shades of the World Cup knockout wins against Australia and New Zealand last autumn and Jones warned Wales and Italy that his team have additional gears for the final two rounds.

“I wouldn’t say we were off the pace – I think they started pretty well. No excuses though because they’ve started pretty well against us before and we should have been ready for that,” said Farrell.

“We were coming here to try and win a Triple Crown and they were trying to fight to stay in the championship.

“We can assess all the bits, all the technicalities and the ramifications of accumulative errors etc, or refereeing decisions or whatever, but the reality is that they came out of the blocks hard, got on the front foot and we took a few sucker-punches.

“I need to look at myself. Were they up for it more than us? Us, going for a Triple Crown? That’s my responsibility to make sure that that shouldn’t happen, so I’ve got to look at myself first and foremost.”