London: Eddie Jones claims there could be up to 15 England players in the British and Irish Lions squad for next year’s tour to New Zealand.

Jones has masterminded 13 consecutive wins since replacing Stuart Lancaster as England boss and the latest triumph came on Saturday when Australia were crushed 37-21 at Twickenham.

That completed an unbeaten calendar year, the first time since 1992 England have achieved the feat, and means Jones’ men will go into next season’s Six Nations as favourites to retain their title.

Jones thinks a successful Six Nations will see England’s players dominate Warren Gatland’s Lions team.

“The Lions selection will be based almost entirely on what happens in the Six Nations. I think if we have a dominant Six Nations I would expect anywhere from 10-15 of our players to be in the Lions squad,” he told BBC Radio Five on Monday.

When pressed on how many players were likely to be in the starting line-up, Jones added: “I’ll leave that to Warren Gatland but a number of players have put up their hand strongly.

“I think you have guys who went on the last Lions tour like Dan Cole, Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell will be at the head of the queue.”

The Lions will play three Tests against New Zealand, the first on June 24 at Auckland’s Eden Park.

England won on Saturday despite the absence of injured first-choice forwards, Billy Vunipola, James Haskell and Maro Itoje.

But Jones warned that no one “owned” an England shirt.

“If you don’t keep performing, you won’t be in the team,” he said.

“If players aren’t hungry and you see it in their performance straight away, then they won’t be here.

“We have enough depth to change the squad if we need to,” added Jones.

“No one owns an English jersey, you borrow the jersey for 80 minutes. You’re lucky to get it again, you have to work hard to get it and if you don’t have the right attitude, then you won’t get it.”

Saturday saw Farrell land all his six goal-kicks against the Wallabies despite not being fully fit in the view of his coach.

“Owen is the spirit of the team. He’s an absolute competitor,” Jones said.

“He hasn’t been at his best this autumn — it’s quite clear he’s still recovering from his back injury. I’d say he’s probably been at 80 per cent of his total fitness.

“To win those four Tests when your inside centre is nowhere near his best is a pretty good effort. He’s enormous for us. He’s the standard bearer.”

Jones has known of Farrell’s ability since the midfielder was a teenager.

“He’s always been a fantastic player,” he said. “I knew him from when I was at Saracens. I signed him to the academy there, because I knew he had a massive potential and a competitive desire — like his dad (dual code international Andy).

“He played a trial against Toulon when he was only about 16 and nine months and Sonny Bill Williams was making his debut for Toulon.

“Owen got the ball and Sonny Bill Williams whacked him and stood over the top of him.

“He just bounced up on his feet and continued on like nothing had happened. You could tell he was going to be a good player.”