Johnny Sexton backs England to ‘do some real damage’ in France Six Nations clash

Johnny Sexton has backed England to “do some real damage” against Grand Slam-chasing France and assist Ireland’s quest for Guinness Six Nations glory.

Andy Farrell’s men kept themselves in title contention going into the final round of the championship courtesy of a pulsating 32-15 bonus-point win at Twickenham.

Victory over Scotland next weekend in Dublin will guarantee the Triple Crown but Irish dreams of topping the final standings are reliant on England avoiding defeat to Les Bleus in Paris.

Ireland captain Sexton has great faith that Eddie Jones’ men – who played the majority of Saturday’s game a man down following Charlie Ewels’ red card after just 82 seconds – can do them a major favour.

“I think England have a great chance of winning next week, like they always do, because England are England, they’re one of the most dominant teams in world rugby,” said the fly-half.

“They were in the World Cup final only a couple of years ago, they’re building a new team and they’ve had some big performances themselves over the last six, seven months, beating South Africa and Australia in November.

“England are a very good team and we gave them huge respect.

“We probably didn’t get the performance that we wanted throughout the game but I think we showed glimpses of it.

“And I think England could go and do some real damage to France next week.”

Ireland were given a major early boost in south west London when Ewels was dismissed following head-on-head contact with James Ryan.

Tries from James Lowe and Hugo Keenan helped the visitors lead at the break but depleted England impressively rallied to level at 15-15 with an hour gone thanks to five Marcus Smith penalties.

Amid a raucous atmosphere, error-strewn Ireland eventually made