Eddie Jones doesn't have to say an awful lot to be accused of mind games these days.

He knows this all too well. He does not have to say anything particularly outlandish to get people talking.

Case in point this week when he confidently bestowed Ireland with the favourites tag. Applying a bit of pressure, or just voicing what appears to be the consensus among the bookies?

The same too can be said for his assertion that Ireland are the world's most cohesive team. Maybe just poking at the lingering frustration within three of Ireland's four provinces that the national team is heavily reliant on the Leinster conveyor belt - but again, not without a huge degree of truth.

Eleven of Ireland's starting team this weekend play for the same province; that's club-country cohesion unmatched by any other tier one nation.

Then, on Thursday, he predicted that Ireland would not have met such physical opposition for some time.

There is of course always the possibility that we're overthinking it. Maybe Jones isn't playing any mind games and completely believes everything he has said. In all honesty, this week it seems both are true.

Without saying anything outlandish, Jones has placed a public emphasis on a fact that has always and will continue to make Ireland a touch uncomfortable: they are playing England at Twickenham, and are expected to win.

An Irish team playing the type of rugby that this side has in the last year will always back themselves at home, so it's not the favourites tag that they don't like.

It is more the expectation that they should go to a venue in which they have won just once in the past eight attempts and come away with a victory.

The 'Twickenham Factor', as it was put to Andy Farrell, can't be ignored in its entirety.

"They've certainly got a good record there so there must be something in it," admitted Farrell, who has lost both games at the stadium since becoming Ireland head coach.

"When you look at our Aviva [Stadium] record it probably compares, so there's something in that.

"It's part of the journey, isn't it? It's part of the next step for us as a team that we can go to places and be at our best, because we know that England are going to come at us and cause us problems."

And that is one of the challenges that Farrell and his team will have spoken about this week: to what extent do you acknowledge the pressure attached specifically to Saturday's game?

Recent defeats at the stadium have left their marks - or "mental scars", as Peter O'Mahony referred to them.

However, the Munster man, battle-worn and as familiar with the highs and lows of international rugby as anyone in the game, says such scars exist this week as they do every week.

The three most recent defeats at Twickenham, a heavy morale-sapping World Cup warm-up loss in 2019 and back-to-back overpowerings in 2020, will never be forgotten or rectified in games to come.

They are games of the past, says O'Mahony, and that is where they remain.

"That was a different time, different team. Different game almost - sorry not almost, it was a different rugby game to the one we're playing today," he said.

"You always have those emotional scars - that's the only way to describe them - in your career.

"They stay forever but they're not something that I was thinking about this week. They're past. They've certainly moulded me as a rugby player but they're not something I go back to very often but I've been there and I've certainly learned lessons from them."

Ireland's commitment is to letting go of the past. Take whatever learnings you need and move on to the next one.

It is a mantra that applies as much to the game itself as it does to the build-up.

They will face more than a few moments of jeopardy in what most are expecting to be a tight game. They may get out of some, but not all. Once they are done, those moments are to be treated with the same distance as previous matches.

"By not getting in your own way. By allowing yourself to the next moment and not gatecrashing your own thoughts and playing emotionally," Farrell responded when asked he wanted his players to respond to in-game adversity.

"We've learned some lessons in that regard, not too long ago actually. We're looking to get better in that area."

As a public persona, Farrell presents a direct contrast to Jones. You get the feeling that Ireland's head coach views mind games only as a distraction.

For Farrell, his England counterpart's remarks were amusing and bewildering in equal measure.

"I love Eddie's comments. I love reading them," he said.

"I think it's great for the game. His character, his charisma, I've learned a lot off him. I've worked under him, I've been the captain of his side, I like being in his company.

"I don't see the need. I don't get it sometimes, but I like reading it. I think it's intriguing."

Laugh them off. Acknowledge but don't obsess, and never let the outside noise drown out what you know to be true inside the room.

Those seem to be the mantras that have served Farrell and his Ireland side well in recent times.

On Saturday, as they head into Twickenham with the favourites tag on their backs, they will need to trust that process more than ever.