Jamie George urges his England team-mates to show no fear in pursuit of Six Nations glory as skipper insists his side are capable of going all the way

England captain Jamie George told his team to play without fear and launch a surprise charge for the Six Nations title – as he admitted the players were afraid of making mistakes.

After scraping past Italy in Rome, England expect prop Ellis Genge and forward George Martin to be back in contention for next week’s game against Wales.

Ireland are strong favorites to win the title after their brilliant 38-17 victory over France in Marseille on Friday night, but George believes his new squad can cause an upset.

“I don’t want anyone to be involved in this squad if they don’t really believe we can go and challenge the best and win this tournament,” the hooker said.

‘When we watched Ireland on Friday night, they were very impressive. Not many teams go to France and perform like that.

Tommaso Allan scored a try, two conversions and a penalty in a dominant first half for Italy

But England came on late and battled back to end their disappointing recent record in opening matches

‘It’s a plan for us and every team to look at how they approached that game. We will stick to how fast we need to learn – and we need to make sure we learn those lessons, being very clear about what we want to do. We have a great opportunity to be back in front of our fans and really give them something to smile about,’ said George.

England gave debuts to five players in Rome, with rookie flanker Ethan Roots named man of the match.

Head coach Steve Borthwick said: ‘It was brilliant to see five players make their Six Nations debuts, which doesn’t happen very often.

‘It was a special day to be involved with them at the start of their English careers. Just chatting to them in the dressing rooms, they’re going to wear the England shirt for a long time and they’re going to come together for a number of years, which is exciting as we’ve got a good number of players to come back in.

“But Ethan Roots in particular made his debut, played 80 minutes and saw a lot at home – he was outstanding.”

England won despite a last-minute change to their squad, with Genge pulling out 90 minutes before kick-off. Providing an update on the vice-captain, Borthwick added: ‘We really hope Ellis will be available next week. Got a scan on his foot Friday morning. It was an acute repetition of something that happened in the past. On Friday night we got the scans back and I very much hope he is available next week.’

England host Wales at Twickenham in the second round and will go into the match with words of encouragement from the manager.

Steve Borthwick insisted his side must build on their momentum when they face Wales in the second round

Borthwick has urged his players to shake off the fear that has consumed England rugby teams in recent years – describing this as something that goes back to his own playing days.

There have been meetings about the team’s development over the last few weeks as they enter a new era without Owen Farrell, and George added: ‘We are very fortunate that our coaching staff are very clear about how we want to go about the things. As a player, it just means that we have to have the courage to go and do it.

“Sometimes, at the highest level, at Test level, the pressure comes on. You might want to sit back and worry about not making a mistake. It’s been like that in the past. What pleased me most today was that we got cut a couple of times in the first half. Did that take anything away from our line speed? Absolutely not. We had the guts to keep going after them.’

Winger Tommy Freeman added: ‘We want to be champions of Europe. Next week we are back at home in front of English fans. We want to put on a show for them, an England show – something they can remember.’