Despite the fact his side are going for a potential three-in-a-row, Eddie Jones is keeping remarkably humble about England's chances of Six Nations success.
Having won all but one of his twenty-three games in charge of England's rugby team, Jones has perhaps failed to capture the collective imagination of England fans.
Speaking to the BBC of England's chances in the forthcoming competition, Jones identified at least two sides he considers his team to be chasing over the coming weeks:
Well the environment has changed, everyone is talking about Ireland and Scotland ... so we're chasing those guys.
Alerted to the fact that his side were still the favourites to claim a third-successive victory, the Australian wasn't buying it:
How can we be favourites? We won every test last year bar one, and every comment about our play was that we were terrible.
And now, Scotland are the darlings of European rugby, everytime the ball goes from side-to-side people get excited, Ireland are beating everybody, so, it's a great opportunity for us to chase these guys.
A little too tongue-in-cheek to take him all that seriously, Jones is clearly a little confused at what lengths he has to go to to win over the love of the rugby public.
Reminiscent of Jose Mourinho's scorn toward the "poets" of football management, Jones' comments reiterate what seems to be a common theme among many English rugby pundits ahead of the Six Nations.
Both Lawrence Dallaglio and Will Greenwood have been similarly self-deprecating regarding England's chances against their formidable Irish opponents.
However, how much even Jones believes what he is saying, Joe Schmidt will be under no illusions as to the threat the reigning champions possess.
You can watch Jones struggle to keep the beaming smile from his face as he speaks below.
"Scotland are the darlings of European rugby."
Eddie Jones has identified Scotland and Ireland as the big threats for this year's tournament.
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— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) January 25, 2018
