Iain Henderson’s Triple Crown hope for Ireland off past pain against England

Andy Farrell’s side travel to London later this month having made a flying start to the Guinness Six Nations by dispatching Scotland and Wales in successive weeks.

Ireland collapsed to an embarrassing 57-15 defeat to Eddie Jones’ men during a World Cup warm-up match last summer, just over six months after being beaten 32-20 by them on home soil in the Six Nations.

Ulster captain Henderson admits the heavier of those two emphatic losses remains etched in Irish minds and is eager to make positive use of that chastening experience when they attempt to complete a clean sweep of victories over the home nations in a fortnight’s time.

“Obviously the Triple Crown is something that would be great to win,” said Henderson. “But what a lot of the players will be thinking about is the last game that we had in Twickenham and how that definitely didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.

“We’ll definitely be looking back at that and looking to see how we can make improvements and what we can do.

“I think when any team puts 50 on you, there’s a wee element of surprise there.

“We’ll look back at that, we’ll see what went wrong. But ultimately we’ll be wanting to produce a very different performance.”

Henderson believes a fast, physical start will be essential on February 23 at Twickenham as Ireland strive for further improvement and consistent performances.

“England will definitely be up for it, they’ll be looking to go after us, come out all guns blazing,” continued the 27-year-old. “We’ve got a week off now, a week to regenerate and recuperate, and try and fix what we think needs fixed. And going into that England week we can really ramp up.

“There’s a lot to work on and a lot that we want to get better at and improve. Dominating them physically early on will be key but everyone wants to do that every game.”