Exclusive: Alex Mitchell says 'more to come' from England - ‘We can be one of the best sides in the world’

Alex Mitchell admitted there is a “buzz” around the English camp after their thrilling 23-22 victory over Ireland in the penultimate round of the Six Nations and insisted “there’s more to come” from this group of players.

England recovered from a disappointing defeat to Scotland in the Calcutta Cup to upset the odds and end Irish hopes of a second successive Grand Slam.

Marcus Smith slotted a last-gasp drop-goal to spark wild scenes of celebration at Twickenham after arguably the best performance of the Steve Borthwick era.

After laboured wins over Italy and Wales, England were well beaten by the Scots at Murrayfield ahead of the visit of Andy Farrell’s Irish juggernaut.

But facing one of the most feared sides in the world brought out the best in English players, who met their rivals with the kind of power and speed that’s been largely missing on the international stage since Borthwick took over.

“It was a fantastic weekend personally,” Mitchell told TNT Sports in a special interview. “Fantastic to get the win. That's what we went there to do.

“We're very happy but we know there's more to come from us as well, which is exciting.

“We know we can do it for our clubs, but we've not always shown it on the international stage. On Saturday, we showed bits of it.

“I thought at parts we were outstanding but we left some opportunities and tries out there still. It's outstanding to see and to see the opportunities we missed.

“I know we can go one step further and push the top four sides and then be one of the best sides in the world.”

Not many gave England a hope of turning over Ireland. Despite the home advantage, most of the talk in the build-up was about how many points Ireland were going to win by, such has been their recent dominance, in the northern hemisphere at least.

Former Ireland international Jamie Heaslip even suggested England’s only hope of winning was if Farrell’s side was reduced to 14 or 13 men.

Not that England needed extra motivation, but that sort of pre-match hype certainly gave the contest an extra edge.

“For me, I don't really try and look at it because you hear so much noise from the outside,” Mitchell added. “But I guess you do end up seeing bits.

“It's just probably less of a motivation for me but for some lads, it's probably massive. To try and do one over on them with all the talk in the week. Yeah, it obviously adds fuel to the fire and gets you going because you've got an extra thing to get after and beat them for.

“Little things like that do count and obviously it kind of helped us.”

Specifically, England brought more intensity to their play but coupled it with increased accuracy.

The blitz defence wreaked havoc on the machine-like Irish attack, while the likes of Maro Itoje and George Martin were a nuisance at the set-piece.

Going forward is arguably where Borthwick’s side made the biggest strides, though. Against Scotland, they were one-dimensional and lacked any real penetration after George Furbank’s early score.

The attacking unit on show at Twickenham was almost unrecognisable.

“We worked on it a lot. We know our attack against Scotland wasn’t great so in the week, we had a lot more focus on our attack,” Mitchell continued. “And little things in training that we tweaked.

“We knew Ireland were going to come out the blocks in that first 20 so look after them in that part and then the attack comes alive.

“We knew we weren't too far off in the previous weeks from training but just a little few little tweaks helped us and we had our best performance.”

One man who received plenty of plaudits was Ben Earl. The number eight was a man mountain at Twickenham and showcased why he’s quickly established himself as one of the best ball carriers in the game.

While not the biggest, the 26-year-old plays with an aggression that’s hard to match and has a wicked turn of pace.

After Peter O’Mahony was sent to the sin-bin, Earl made sure England made the most of their numerical advantage to power over the line from close range for a try his performance deserved.

And Mitchell heaped praise on England’s standout player of the Championship, adding: “He’s been class. He's been a bit too good at times. He’s everywhere, very aggressive, very elusive runner, always beats the first man.

“To have a player like that in your in your side is just outstanding. Give him the ball, and he'll do something for you get you on the front foot.

“Especially as a nine, that's what you want, front foot carries, and that's what he gives you. He’s a great leader as well.

“He's been really good defensively and he's deserved his man of the matches. A player like that in your team is a massive asset.”

The next challenge for England is to carry their momentum into the game against France and prove it wasn’t a one-off performance.

With three wins from four, a first Six Nations title since 2020 is still possible so motivation shouldn’t be an issue ahead of the showdown in Lyon.

France will also be coming into the contest off the back of an improved showing in Cardiff against Wales and could yet lift the title depending on how the game between Ireland and Scotland plays out.

Mitchell is confident complacency won’t creep in despite the sudden positivity that now surrounds the squad.

“We're not getting too ahead of ourselves. For the Scotland week we kind of ignored the noise on the outside and now we've won the noise is very positive, but you’ve got to ignore that as well.

“We know within our circles what's going well, what we need to improve and just focus on ourselves.

“Again, we want another performance and we know good teams back it up. We don't just want one good performance and then a poor performance, we want a result on the back of that.

“The French have massive threats. They're a fantastic side, one of the top four, so we're going to chase them down and try and get another performance out of us.”

It’s been a disappointing campaign for France, who have been without star scrum-half Antoine Dupont. Despite that loss, Les Bleus were still tipped to contend for a second title in three years, with the opening game at home to Ireland billed as a potential tournament decider.

However, they were well beaten and then only scraped past Scotland before drawing at home to Italy.

A strong second-half showing helped them come from behind to beat Wales last time out and showed glimpses of the side that won the Grand Slam two years ago, but Mitchell believes now is a good time to face Fabien Galthie’s side.

“I think so,” Mitchell said, when asked if they are there for the taking. “We can't we can't take them too lightly. We know that pack is huge and a quality pack and their backs are very elusive and they’ve got some outstanding players.

“You can't take them for granted. In that sense, you know they're going to come out the blocks, especially playing in France in Lyon.

“It's going to be a great experience playing out there. The atmosphere is always amazing in France, we know it's going to be a huge test match, but if we perform we can get a result.”

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