The Leicester Tiger stand-off added four penalties and two conversions as England clinched the feat in emphatic style with a comprehensive six try 41-15 victory against Ireland in Athlone.

But Ford, who became the youngest player to make their English club debut for Leicester Tigers at the age of 16 years and 237 days, admits attention is now fully focused on gearing up for the Junior World Championships.

“One of our season objectives was to win the Grand Slam, and that’s what we’ve done," he said, "It’s not us being arrogant, it’s being confident and pushing ourselves to be the best we can.

“Everyone in the changing room was absolutely delighted. To secure the win out in Ireland took some doing. We knew how strong they are at home – but we kept the scoreboard kicking over nicely and here we are, we’ve done it.

"Ireland were pretty physical at times and they caused us a few problems. It was quite tight in the first half but we managed to get a few tries and started to play some decent stuff.

"We missed a couple of opportunities to score early on but I knew if we kept playing in the same way we’d create more.

"We can quite easily be harsh on ourselves and say that we need to be nailing all these chances, but there are a few months until the Junior World Championship starts in Italy and I’m sure we’ll work on our game even further."