Six Nations 2016: France vs England - Eddie Jones tells players to prove their superiority over French in Paris

Red-rose have an opportunity to establish themselves as the team to beat in the northern hemisphere by taking Grand Slam

Danny Care passes the ball during England training at Bagshot (Reuters)

Not for the first time, Eddie Jones is playing both ends against the middle as he attempts to land one of the biggest prizes in rugby. Shortly after confirming his England team for Saturday’s Grand Slam match with France on the far side of the water, the head coach warned the players against getting too full of themselves... and then informed them that they could not expect to be the best in Europe unless they truly believed they were better than everyone else.

Somehow, the sharp-witted Australian managed to say all this without mixing his messages. His point was clear: England are on an upward curve and while only a blind man or a fool would mistake them for the Wallabies – still less the All Blacks – they at least have an opportunity to establish themselves as the team to beat in the northern hemisphere. Which, as Jones indicated, would be a decent start.

“Don’t ever get ahead of yourself – never ahead, never behind,” he said after naming a side showing two starting changes from the line-up that did for Wales last weekend and won the Six Nations title as a result: Mako Vunipola for the troubled Joe Marler at loose-head prop; Danny Care for Ben Youngs in the hotly contested scrum-half role.

“Team development is such a transient business,” the coach continued. “Something could happen tonight and we go backwards: the margins for error are very small – 2 or 3 per cent. So while I know where I want us to be, we haven’t done anything yet. Once we beat France, we’ll feel like we have the Six Nations trophy.”

Mako Vunipola, pictured, replaces Joe Marler in the front row for England’s final Six Nations match (PA)

If that last comment was awash with the presumption Jones had been cautioning against, he was unapologetic. “I think we’re the better side and we have to believe we’re better,” he said. “Why have we won the title with a game to spare? It’s not because we’re inferior to the other teams. We have to go to France and put all that on the paddock. If we can’t handle that, we’re not as good as we think we are.

“I don’t think it’s just an Australian attitude. Did Jonny Wilkinson spend seven hours a day practising because he didn’t want to be the best in the world? He might not have said that, but his actions said it. Speaking as someone who coached against him, everything he did was about being the best. And the England team who beat the Wallabies in Melbourne in 2003 knew, 100 per cent, that they were good enough to win the World Cup later that year.”

If the promotions of Vunipola and Care for the championship denouement were far from inevitable, they were not surprising either. Vunipola’s ball-carrying and offloading skills, together with his all-round understanding of the attacking game, puts Marler in the shade and while the Saracens prop is less obviously aggressive and does not always scrummage as strongly as his rival, he will fit the bill if England manage to generate a high tempo.

Care will be central to that. By far the quicker of the two half-backs, he has been selected to up the pace of proceedings at every turn in an effort to maximise England’s clear advantage in the fitness stakes. “We think Danny can add some real zest at the start of the match, which is where we believe France will be at their best,” the coach explained. “We have to find a way of stopping them getting into the game. Then Ben, who was outstanding against Wales, can come on and finish it for us.”

Jones has no doubt that England – his England, as opposed to the many and varied Englands of times past – are mentally equipped to deal with the occasion. “We’re a new team,” he said. “We’re fit, we’re flexible and we understand how to play in a number of different ways.

“I have a daughter who’s 23: George Ford [the outside-half] was 23 yesterday and the things that young kid is doing amaze me. His ability to think about the game, his understanding of how we have to play... both he and Owen Farrell [the inside centre] are well beyond their age and that’s the exciting thing about this side.

“We have the potential to start winning things and if we do that this weekend, it will give everyone confidence on which they can build. If you don’t win trophies, you’re always talking about what happens next. If you do, you know that what you’re doing is right.”

Guy Novès, the France coach, has also made a couple of changes to his starting side, both of them in the back row. Bernard le Roux, returning to the mix after injury, will bring a ruthless edge to the contest at the tackle area, while No 8 Loann Goujon has the carrying game to cause England hassle in the heavy traffic.

But Jones believes, deep down, that he has the winning of this one – that his young side will be ready emotionally as well as physically. “I have always found that the bigger the game ahead, the less you have to do as a coach,” he said. “If there’s a problem with the players’ motivation ahead of a match like this, you have a major issue. France away, for a Grand Slam? It’s a great test.”