Eddie Jones tried to draw a line under his disparaging comments about Ireland and Wales as he announced a raft of changes to England’s side for their Six Nations finale. The Australian dropped half-backs Danny Care and George Ford, two of 10 alterations, three of them positional, to his starting XV for Saturday’s match at Twickenham against newly-crowned champions Ireland, who are bidding for a Grand Slam. Jones, yet to lose a Twickenham Test as England boss, reiterated his apologies for calling Ireland “scummy” and Wales a “shit little place” after a video of a speech he gave to a team sponsor last year emerged on Wednesday. “I’d just like to say I’ve apologised for the remarks,” Jones told reporters at England’s Bagshot training base, southwest of London “I sincerely mean that and I really don’t have anything else to say on the matter.” Saracens scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth starts in place of Care and will resume his club partnership with Owen Farrell, normally a centre for England but now at fly-half instead of childhood friend Ford. Jones decided to perform major surgery to his team following England’s 22-16 loss to France in Paris last weekend — a defeat that ended their hopes of a third successive Six Nations title under the Australian coach. Ben Te’o filled the inside centre position vacated by Farrell to form a midfield duo with Jonathan Joseph after both men had been competing for the same place for most of this tournament. Meanwhile wing Elliot Daly was passed fit following a foot problem. Up front, fit-again hooker Dylan Hartley returns as captain after missing the defeat in Paris with a calf injury. Jones also reshaped the back-row after tournament-ending injuries to Nathan Hughes and Courtney Lawes. Their places were taken by Sam Simmonds in at No 8 and James Haskell, selected at openside, with Chris Robshaw moving across to blindside flanker. George Kruis came in for Joe Launchbury at lock and prop Kyle Sinckler started instead of Dan Cole. “We need to get on the front foot against Ireland and we’ve selected a team to do that,” said Jones. “It’s good to have Dylan back from injury, he trained superbly yesterday (Wednesday). We’ve gone for an Owen, Te’o and Joseph midfield and we feel they can get us on the front foot.”