SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2019 WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

The AshesRoot’s stubborn stand gives England some slim hope to cling on to

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League leaders Liverpool were too good for Arsenal at Anfield (Getty)

Farrell sends out World

Cup warning after win

JACK DE MENEZES

Owen Farrell put the rest of the world on

notice in the aftermath of England’s record

57-15 win over Ireland by stressing their best

performances remain ahead, while Eddie Jones

warmed that man-of-the-match Manu Tuilagi

still has “20 per cent to go” before he reaches

his peak.

England blew their Six Nations rivals off the

Twickenham pitch in an eight-try rout that

saw Tuilagi rise to the fore alongside Joe

Cokanasiga, with the young wing scoring

twice in a World Cup warm-up demolition.

Ireland were only entering their second of four

warm-up matches while England found

themselves a game further into their

preparations, but the contest was killed off in

12 emphatic second-half minutes as they ran in

21 unanswered points through Maro Itoje,

George Kruis and Tom Curry tries.

“We feel like we 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. The most pleasing thing is that it feels

like our best stuff is still in front of us.”

Solskjaer: Racist abuse must

end

MARK CRITCHLEY

AT OLD TRAFFORD

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has called on vile

racist abuse to stop after Marcus

Rashford was targeted on Twitter

following his missed penalty for

Manchester United in their 2-1 loss to

The England striker suffered the same

treatment as Paul Pogba from

anonymous online users, with the

Frenchman missing a spot kick against

Wolves on Monday. Online abusers

repeatedly used the N-word in

response to Rashford’s miss.

“We need to stop it, it needs to stop,”

Solskjaer said. “I’m just lost

for words if it keeps going. We keep

having all these campaigns and they

keep hiding behind fake identities. It’s

crazy we talk about this in 2019.

“I don’t think it’s down to me to

change it but we’ve got to do

something and the authorities have

got to do something about these ones

that spread this hate.”