By Daniel Schofield
at TwickenhamBilly Vunipola has challenged his
England team-mates to prove they
can replicate their record victory
over Ireland away from Twicken-
ham to underline their status as
World Cup contenders.
In their final match at Twicken-
ham before they depart for Japan,
England hammered a team who
would have been world No 1 had
they won. The 57-15 victory was the
biggest winning margin and high-
est number of points scored in
matches between the countries.
Asked what message he had for
supporters giddy with World Cup
optimism, head coach Eddie Jones
replied: “Well, the message was the
80 minutes we played. You can’t
give a better message than that.”
There are caveats. As Jones ad-
mitted, Ireland, whose last game
was two weeks ago against Italy,
may be at a separate stage in their
preparation. It is also a different
matter playing outside of Twicken-
ham, where England have lost just
two Tests under Jones. Away from
home England have lost six of their
past eight matches, and No 8 Vuni-
pola says they must demonstrate
they are as comfortable on the road
as they are on their own patch.
“I would like to see that perfor-
mance away from home,” Vunipola
said. “I have said it to Eddie in the
changing rooms. That is the biggest
challenge next, going to Japan and
doing it away from all our fans and
the comforts of our home changing
room. There is massive scope for us
to improve. That is the biggest chal-
lenge for us.
“We need to put out perfor-
mances like today more consist-
ently. We may not always get the
scorelines but we need to be there
or thereabouts in terms of fighting
for victories.
“We did that last week, which
was awesome. We didn’t get the
victory but we were in the game.
Today you could see that even in
the dead moments we were alive.”
The only dampener on an other-
wise scorching day was the sight of
Mako Vunipola being replaced with
a tight hamstring 17 minutes after
coming on. Jones said the substitu-
tion was a precautionary move, but
Vunipola will face a nervous wait
on the scan results having only just
returned from a torn hamstring in
May. As he is one of England’s most
influential players, the loss of the
loosehead prop would be damaging
to their World Cup hopes.However, George Kruis has
avoided a citing for his high tackle
on Irish replacement fly half Jack
Carty for which he had received a
yellow card. Lock Paul Gabrillagues
effectively lost his place in France’s
World Cup squad after receiving a
six-match ban following a citing for
a dangerous clear-out against Scot-
land, but even though Kruis has
escaped a similar fate Jones be-
lieves the clampdown on high tack-
les has gone too far.
“I was just speaking to Joe
Schmidt,” he said. “I think the red
cards, that high tackle is something
that common sense has to be ap-
plied to otherwise we’re going to
have a World Cup like the under-
20s where it’s a lottery of how many
players you have on the field.”
Centre Jonathan Joseph was
withdrawn before kick-off with
Jones again erring on the side of
caution and promoting Joe March-
ant to the bench.
Jones also confirmed that centre
Henry Slade was recovering well
from a knee injury and would be in
line to face Italy in England’s final
warm-up game at St James’ Park on
Sept 6. The first World Cup test is
against Tonga in Sapporo on Sept
22.
On Wednesday, England will fly
to Italy, for what Jones describes as
a three-day mini pre-season camp.
“Basically running, lifting, base
skills,” Jones said. “Going right back
to the basics, peel everything back
again. We’ve had stints of that, but
now is the time to do it again.
“Reset, refocus and go to another
level. A hundred per cent [we need
to raise our intensity]. It’s the only
way we can get better.”
After cutting short their training
week last week to replicate losing a
day to a typhoon in Japan, Jones
also had his team arrive at the
ground on Saturday later than usual
to test his players.
“A lot of things we do now, we
don’t give them an explanation; we
just expect them to adapt,” Jones
said. “We’re seeing more and more
of them just accepting that that’s
the case and getting on with it.”Now we must take
our Twickenham
form on the road,
demands Vunipola
Injured brother Mako is
worry for World Cup
Win over Ireland sends
a message, says Jones
disallowed that cost us the game
and I thought that was a really
good indication of the togetherness
of the side coming through.”
Tuilagi, who turned back the
years on Saturday with a display of
similar destructive impact to the
19-year-old who forced his way
into England’s 2011 World Cup
squad, is the totem example of the
gains the squad have made.
His direct running, combined
with the power of Vunipola, and
the ferocious physicality of Curry
and Sam Underhill, ensured that
the creative switch to start with
George Ford and Owen Farrell
allowed England to carve open
Ireland’s defence almost at will
following Jordan Larmour’s try.
“He [Tuilagi] is a finely tuned
athlete,” said Jonny May. “There
are not many people his size who
move as fast or as powerfully as
him. He has got to be looked after
and they have to get it just right.
He has managed to have 12 weeks
of getting what he needs and now
he is showing it out on the pitch.”
Onwards and upwards England.Scores 3-0 Farrell pen; 3-5 Larmour try; 3-7 Byrne con;
8-7 Cokanasiga try; 8-10 Byrne pen; 13-10 Daly try;
15-10 Farrell con; 20-10 Tuilagi try; 22-10 Farrell con;
27-10 Itoje try; 29-10 Farrell con; 34-10 Kruis try;
36-10 Farrell con; 41-10 Curry try; 43-10 Farrell con;
48-10 Cokanasiga try; 50-10 Farrell con; 50-15 Aki try;
55-15 Cowan-Dickie try; 57-15 Ford con.
England E Daly; J Cokanasiga, M Tuilagi (J Marchant 71),
O Farrell (P Francis 68), J May; G Ford, B Youngs
(W Heinz 54); J Marler (M Vunipola 61), J George
(L Cowan-Dickie 54), K Sinckler (D Cole 60), M Itoje,
G Kruis, T Curry (C Lawes 58), S Underhill (M Wilson 58),
B Vunipola. Sin-bin Kruis.
Ireland R Kearney (A Conway 54); J Larmour, G Ringrose,
B Aki, J Stockdale; R Byrne (J Carty 54), C Murray
(L McGrath 41); C Healy (J McGrath 40), R Best (S Cronin
54), T Furlong (A Porter 54), I Henderson (T Beirne 61),
J Kleyn (D Toner 54), P O’Mahony, J van der Flier,
CJ Stander.
Referee Nigel Owens (Wales).Challenge: Billy Vunipola says England
must improve away from their homeThe Daily Telegraph Monday 26 August 2019 *** 21
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