STATS A REALLY FUNNY ONE...

Itoje wants England to prove data predictions are a joke

- Adam Hathaway

MARO ITOJE says it is time for England to deliver deliver on their undoubted potential in Dublin today as they aim to prove computer experts wrong.

England have talked a good game for the past 12 months but have run up just five wins from 12 matches and a succession of near misses.

Itoje laughed off an Opta boffins' prediction that England have a two percent chance of winning the Six Nations and less than one percent chance of claiming the Grand Slam.

Experts there fed all their data into their systems and simulated matches 10,000 times to come to that conclusion.

Itoje does recognise that Steve Borthwick's side have failed to produce the goods in the past year, but talk is cheap and results need to improve now whatever the algorithms say.