in 21 unanswered points through Maro Itoje, George Kruis and Tom Curry tries.
“We feel like we are going in the right direction, and are building towards something,” said captain Farrell,
who finished the day with 15 points and made the most of his partnership with George Ford to unlock
England’s rampant backs. “Today is another step along. The most pleasing thing is that it feels like our best
stuff is still in front of us.”
If that is to prove true in Japan, Saturday’s result served to demonstrate why Tuilagi is so crucial to their
World Cup hopes. The Leicester Tigers centre scored the third try that gave England breathing space
heading into the break, taking a short pass from Ben Youngs and outpacing an Irish defensive line that had
been sucked in towards the scrum, while his bone-crunching second-half tackle on Jordan Larmour
highlighted England’s physical advantage.
“He’s in a good place, he’s got a smile on his face,” Jones said. “He makes coffee for everyone every day
except me so I’ve got to put my order in a bit earlier. He’s getting fitter, he’s about 80 per cent fit at the
moment, we’ve still got a little bit left to go with him and when he gets there he’ll be a handful. One of his
greatest attributes is people like to play with him.
“That’s the reality. It’s scary if you have to mark him.”
Tuilagi’s midfield dominance gave Farrell and Ford plenty of options to attack with, given how much
success Cokanasiga and Jonny May were finding out wide.
“It’s pretty clear for everyone to see what they offer,” Farrell added. “They are pretty hard to stop, and not
just that, they are really hungry at the minute. They are in a good place, when you play alongside them
that’s brilliant.”
Ireland boss Joe Schmidt was understandably unhappy with the performance even if it came in a warm-up
match rather than when it matters in Japan next month, with his side conceding the records for the most
points conceded, largest losing margin and most tries conceded to an England side.
“It was a litany of mistakes from us today to be honest, we were dishevelled,” said Schmidt. “We didn’t get
our set-piece going, didn’t really scavenge as well as we would have liked.
“We fell off 34 tackles, 21 in the first-half. It was tight in that first quarter, when we led 10-8 there was a bit
of promise there. But it was very disappointing.”
The one concern for England is the fitness of Mako Vunipola. The prop came off the bench in the 61st
minute to mark his return from hamstring surgery three months ago, only to depart when he felt a tightness
in the same leg a minute from time.
“He just got bit of a twinge and it was more of a precaution to take him off,” said Jones. “Obviously he’ll be
investigated fully.”