Courtney Lawes wary England might 'peak too early' following Owen Farrell saga

Courtney Lawes insists England must avoid drawing too heavily on their fury at the treatment of Owen Farrell when they face Ireland in Dublin on Saturday )5.30pm).

Steve Borthwick railed against the "personal attacks" on Farrell following a disciplinary panel's decision to downgrade his red card against Wales to a yellow, thereby sparing him a suspension.

England have nonetheless withdrawn their captain from the spotlight ahead of his appeal hearing early next week by revising their plans to pick him in midfield for the Aviva Stadium showdown.

Instead, Lawes leads the underdogs into their penultimate match before the World Cup begins mindful that, while the squad are angry at the attacks on Farrell, the main event has yet to begin.

"This is an interesting adversity because it’s an individual player and we’re not in the World Cup yet, so we can’t peak too early," Lawes said.

"You’ve got to be careful of that – checks and balances and all that kind of stuff. But we can certainly tap into it a bit because it’s a big game and is important to us.

"We’re looking to win but the main thing for us is that we actually put our talent, effort and hard work on to the pitch.

"The last 10 weeks of pre-season have been pretty gruelling and we want to show what we’ve been working on.

"That’s been the frustrating thing for us in the last two games – we just haven’t performed as well as we know we can.

"We lost a game and went close to losing another. At some point it will click for us and that’s when people will see the amount of hard work we’ve put in."

An area of England's game that needs urgent addressing is the collapse in discipline that almost cost them victory against Wales last Saturday.

Henry Arundell, Freddie Steward, Ellis Genge and