Jamie George insists England will be ready for any mind games from Eddie Jones when they face Japan on Saturday as they look to build on an imposing start to the autumn.

England overwhelmed Australia 45-22 at Allianz Stadium, producing their most complete performance of the year in a show of support for under-fire head coach Steve Borthwick.

Now they face a six-day turnaround before continuing the Nations Championship against a side overseen by Jones, the wily Australian who was in charge at Twickenham from 2016 to 2022.

George said: “The challenge is an interesting one in terms of getting our bodies right and getting clarity on what Japan are going to do.

“We’re never sure what Eddie’s going to throw at us, so we’re looking forward to that challenge too.

“But it isn’t about reinventing the wheel, it’s about doubling down on what we did well against Australia and pick up the learnings on what we didn’t do so well.

“We’ve only had a week together so this was a brilliant foundation for us in terms of the first game of the campaign.

“It was important for us to get off to a good start with the performance as much as a result. I thought we did both.

“The pleasing thing is we probably left a little bit out there still. We could have been further up at half-time.

“We’re definitely not the finished article. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but there’s an appetite in the team to make sure we get after that.”

England’s players had promised a reaction to claims made in a newspaper article that Borthwick was causing squad unrest through his methods and man-management style, with the disharmony coming to a ahead during the final week of the July tour.

And they duly delivered, posting the nation’s record points total in the fixture with a seven-try onslaught that opens up sight of the Nations Championship final on 29 November.

George said: “Steve is an unbelievable coach. We showed how much we care about him through the work we put in and how hard we fought. Hopefully all that noise can get out the window and let us focus on the rugby.

“We definitely feel pride at the performance. There have been question marks over our identity and we’ve been clear about that in meetings.

“We genuinely have so much magic. We’ve got some amazing players who can do amazing things. Our job as forwards is to try and create space for them.

“The way that we do that is have a good set-piece. Direct, confrontational carrying in the middle. We did that really well. Our shape looked really good.

“But I’m probably even more pleased with the way that our defence looked. We looked confrontational and physical.”