Six Nations 2018: James Haskell on why everyone hates England, the Ireland rivalry and the Twickenham factor

The flanker will make his 31st appearance against one of the Celtic nations determined to capitalise on home advantage in order to end the Six Nations on a high

James Haskell returns for England tasked with smashing down the Irish door at Twickenham (Getty)

The start of every Six Nations tournament is normally met with the same word that centres around the Celtic nations: hate. Ireland, Scotland and Wales love to hate England, be it on a sporting platform, a friendly fan rivalry or a much deeper feeling that lies within what is engrained in the history of the British Isles.

But when every single England rugby player is asked whether they hate the Irish, Scottish or Welsh, the answer is almost always a firm “no”. Not even a joke, or an ill-advised quip, the feeling just isn’t there.

On Saturday, James Haskell will win his 76th Test cap for England, a remarkable achievement for a player who has not taken the easy route throughout his career. He’s seen his fair share of battles with England’s neighbouring countries – the encounter with Ireland will be his 31st against the one of the aforementioned teams – and he has experienced both the highs and lows that has come against them: the 2011 Grand Slam failure against Ireland, the 2016 redemption victory over Wales.

The flanker is not short of an opinion or two, that much has been made obvious throughout his career, and when asked why teams seem to enjoy hating the English on the rugby stage, the 32-year-old had a clear explanation for it.

“That’s what happens when you used to run the world isn’t it?” said Haskell. “It’s down to empire building. It got done a long, long time ago. I was nothing to do with it. I never once got in my boat and said: ‘right you’re part of Great Britain.’ I can’t be held responsible for it.

“I try to approach my life in sport with passion, intensity and a desire to come out on top and win. I don’t hate anyone. There are people I dislike but I don’t have that. When you’re playing for England you want to stay involved, you want to win at all costs and you want to win – and those are motivating factors enough. The emotion of having to throw your head at someone’s knees and fire in takes it up. That might spill over a bit or whatever.

“It’s an easy motivation factor for other sides because of the long, entrenched history. It’s very difficult for us to say that. If you know your history we are partly to blame.”

His return to the starting line-up this weekend is, in essence, designed to give England something to fight back with. In the defeats against Scotland and France, Eddie Jones’ side have lacked breakdown prowess, front-foot ball and gain-line success. Haskell is brought in to do all three of those, and after making a good impression when he came on in Paris, he is given another chance to impress.

That has been the story of Haskell’s England career. Many times he has been written off – too old, too big, too slow, too much of a liability – and each time he has bounced back. “It’s a great example of resilience, a great example of keeping at the task at hand and not dropping your head,” Eddie Jones said after naming the Wasps back-row at openside flanker, adding that he has “been rewarded for his persistence and resilience”.

Haskell makes his first start for England in a year (Getty)

Haskell has history with Ireland, too. He has faced the Emerald Isle in eight Six Nations matches, starting seven, and been sin-binned twice against them. He played in that dispiriting defeat last year that ended England’s air of invincibility, as well as the 2011 Grand Slam-denying defeat under Martin Johnson’s reign. Emotion normally plays a huge role in games between the two sides and for more than one reason, as Haskell notes.

“They always put it on St Patrick’s Day when you are playing Ireland don’t they?” he adds. “That’s why the place is always jumping. It is hard. The Twickenham crowd are great, there will be 82,000 people there, it is going be very passionate.

“Crowds always have a role to play in anything they do: A) to motivate the lads, and B) to make a hostile environment. Wherever we go it is a hostile environment, you always expect to have a hostile environment.”

Haskell hopes the Twickenham factor will spur England on to victory (Getty)

He added: “I don’t want to burst any bubbles here – there is the comfort of being at home on your territory where you know the crowd will be on your side for the most part – but because we travel all the time it doesn’t really matter where we are playing or what the records are. It comes down to trying to play your game and beat the opposition and then come away with a win.”