FORGET the mind games. It’s the real games that matter.

And none matter more for Eddie Jones and Andy Farrell right now that Saturday’s Twickenham clash of white and green.

For both England and Ireland, the equation is simple. Win, and it’s all to play for. Lose, and you are also-rans next weekend.

In that regard, Jones’ description of the match as a “semi-final” was spot-on.

But it is the Australian England coach who has more to win – and lose – than his English (but for these purposes Irish) rival.

Jones has promised a Six Nations clash for the ages.

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An England ready to crash into Farrell’s ranks, bringing them an intensity that might unhinge all that Leinster-based cohesion.

He said: “We are a very physical team and they haven’t played against a side as physical as us for a long time. 

“If you look at their record, they haven’t played against South Africa since 2017. 

“We played against South Africa last year and did well in those physical stakes so we intend to really take it to them.”

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It was a statement of intent, unquestionably, and while Jones was determined to talk up Ireland’s status as “red-hot favourites”, enlisting the tale of a (perhaps mythical) local coffee shop barista to reinforce his case, England never have any excuses.

Jones claimed that even the barista who served him his cappuccino reckons they are rank underdogs at Twickenham.

He said: “The girl in there thinks Ireland are red-hot favourites and are going to win.

“I said to her, 'Just give me the coffee please'."

That is why the criticisms have followed all three performances so far.

England threw away victory in Scotland, did enough but no more against Italy and then stumbled over the line when Wales came to town.

The next two weekends have to be a huge step up for the coach, who has made three changes, with only Jamie George’s return at hooker enforced, from last time out.

Jones said: “It took us four weeks to get back to where we were against South Africa last autumn, which was the first fallow week. 

“We then started training with the same intensity and the same accuracy as we did against South Africa, in that week. 

“So it took us four weeks to get to South Africa, it took us about four weeks to get back and now we have surpassed what we did in the South Africa week. 

“The team doesn’t know how good they can be and we are certainly going to find out on Saturday how good we can be.”

Asked if HE knew how good they can be, Jones avoided the usual one-liners to reply: “I have got a picture in my head, it is a very good picture, but we have got to keep developing.

“No progression is linear. If it was, progression everyone would do it and it would be easy. There are ups and downs with it and you have got to ride that.

“We’re not far away. We’re one pass, one accurate kick, one good support line away from being very good.

“But we’re a work in progress. We’re really pleased with the way that’s going but that’s not converting into tries so far.

“The game’s always about scoring tries but that will come. We’d like to be this week but it’s coming. 

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“It’s like that wave coming in. You can see it coming in and all of a sudden it crashes and all this power comes out of it. That’s what we’ll be like.”

For Jones, and England, it needs to be a white wave, not a white flag. And then he can regale us about another “chance encounter” next week.

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