Jamie George hailed England’s last‑gasp victory over Ireland as a special day and a potential springboard to a rosier future. George said his team had been keen to respond to their disappointing loss to Scotland at Murrayfield and believes they have now issued an emphatic message to all those who doubted them.
“It is probably one of the most emotional and proud days of my career,” said George. “There were doubters after that Scotland performance, and probably rightly so, but internally we didn’t listen to the noise. For us to go out there and do that to a team like Ireland, who for me are the best team in the world, is a really special day.”
George has had a rollercoaster tournament, having recently lost his mother to cancer, and admitted the final whistle was a sweet moment. “I was a bit emotional at the end because of everything which has gone on. I was so proud of the players, the way they applied themselves. We spoke a lot about making Twickenham a really tough place to come and play and I thought we did that today.
“Whenever you play for the England rugby team and you don’t win you cop flak. That’s the way it is. What I was most pleased about was how we got together and were clear about how we needed to move forward. I think you saw a lot of steps forward today. There was a lot of criticism of our attack but not many teams go up against Ireland and score three tries.”
Steve Borthwick praised the intensity shown by his side “from the first minute to the last” as they ended Ireland’s attempt to secure back‑to-back Six Nations grand slams. “I think that’s going to become a hallmark of this team – the intensity with which they play,” the head coach said. “We’ll improve as a team, we’ll be better. But fundamentally it’s about finding yourselves in situations where you have to find a way to win. That’s important and the team did that again tonight.”
Both Borthwick and his opposite number, Andy Farrell, played down an apparent exchange of words between the pair as they went down the tunnel at half-time, with Farrell acknowledging that England had deserved their win. “To cut a long story short I thought England deserved it so congratulations to them,” said Farrell. “I thought they played really well. We’ve just got to dust ourselves down and learn the lessons quickly. There won’t be a problem at all about getting the lads back on track next weekend.”
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The Ireland captain, Peter O’Mahony, also said England were worthy winners. “As an Irish supporter, I’m naturally disappointed but it was a deserved win,” said the flanker, who spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin. “Credit England. I thought they played really well, they disrupted us. Some of our discipline was poor but that’s down to them, they put us under pressure.”
England will await medical reports on Henry Slade, Ollie Chessum and Chandler Cunningham-South before confirming their side to face France in Lyon next Saturday but Danny Care, who came on as a replacement to win his 100th cap, believes the squad’s confidence has now be transformed. “We let ourselves down in Scotland and this week we wanted to show the world what we were all about. We believe in the squad and what we’re doing.”
