England legend Iain Balshaw backs current crop to improve despite impressive start to Six Nations

England full-back Elliot Daly is now repaying the faith of Eddie Jones, whose side made Ireland ‘look average’ in their Six Nations opener and have still to hit their peak ahead of this year’s World Cup.

That’s according to Iain Balshaw, the former 15 who was part of Sir Clive Woodward’s side that conquered the world back in 2003.

England shocked the Grand Slam champions with a brilliant 32-20 win in Dublin last week, a performance Balshaw ranks as ‘one of the best of the last 10 years’.

England’s current side are yet to hit their peak in a World Cup year, feels legend Iain Balshaw

Belshaw, speaking exclusively to Sportsmail, picked Elliot Daly out for some individual praise

Alongside Jonny May and Jack Nowell, Daly was part of a back three that shone at the Aviva Stadium.

The Wasps star, who has impressed on the wing for his country, was retained at 15 despite a difficult autumn campaign. Now Balshaw believes England are benefiting from Jones’s show of faith.

‘I don’t think anyone could have ever dreamed of having a better start to a Six Nations campaign,’ he told Sportsmail.

Belshaw, pictured for England in 2008, feels Ireland were made to ‘look average’ last weekend

‘Ireland were made to look average, let’s be honest. We talked about their aerial game, (but) I thought Jonny May had an outstanding match and caught every ball. Elliot Daly exactly the same.

‘With these positions, you can’t just slot in and be world class straight away. You have to grow into them, gain experience, get maturity and the more time these guys play together the better they’re going to get.

‘There was never a doubt in my mind that Elliot Daly was going to be a world class 15, world class 13, you could play him on the wing. But it’s just about giving him the opportunities, letting him gain the experience – not just in one or two games, in 10-15 games. And he’s doing that.’ 

Eleven of the team that won in Dublin started England’s autumn series opener against South Africa, while both Vunipola brothers have since returned from injury.

Billy Vunipola is one of the players to return from injury to bolster England’s charge for the title

And Jones has made just one tactical change for Le Crunch, with Chris Ashton replacing Jack Nowell on the wing.

England head into the game with momentum – a far cry from 12 months ago, when England were beaten at the Stade de France on a run of five straight Test defeats.

England exorcised some demons in the autumn before shocking the world in Dublin.

But Balshaw believes last week’s win was the culmination of 12-18 months of work behind the scenes – and insists the Red Rose can get better still.

‘I don’t think there’s anything that went wrong (last year), they’ve just become more consistent in their performance and their intensity,’ he said.

‘I think Eddie Jones and the team will have known all along that this England performance was coming. 

‘But it takes time for all these guys to gel together – to get your centre pairings right, to get your back row right, to get everything to gel and work together.

He added: ‘That takes time to build and grow and we’re now seeing 12-18 months of hard work from all the players and the staff coming together and coming to fruition. And we still have nine months to the World Cup so there is still more growing time.’