2019 Summer Test Series: England vs Ireland

Vunipola Urges England To Stay Humble

Vunipola Urges England To Stay Humble

Billy Vunipola has told England to "stay humble" after their 57-15 demolition of Ireland

Aug 25, 2019 by FloRugby Staff
Vunipola Urges England To Stay Humble

Billy Vunipola has told England to "stay humble" after their 57-15 demolition of Ireland raised hopes of a potential World Cup triumph later this year.

Eddie Jones' side scored eight tries against an Ireland team regarded as World Cup contenders for the tournament in Japan.

Recording their greatest winning margin and highest scoreline against Ireland was an encouraging sign for England in the third of four warm-up. Tests.

Manu Tuilagi was unstoppable and Joe Cokanasiga helped himself to two tries, but it was the pack who really carried the fight to opponents who missed the opportunity to claim first place in the world rankings.

(Photos by Ian Muir)


However, Saracens number eight Vunipola is wary of the acclaim that will accompany the outcome of their Twickenham send-off.

"The biggest thing is for us to stay humble. Now everyone is going to pump up our tyres because we did well this week, but it was only last week that everyone was hammering us," he said.

"The biggest danger is the other side of the coin. We need to keep our feet firmly on the ground and keep working.

"At the moment we're in a good place but I don't think a good place can win you a World Cup and we want to keep improving.

"We didn't let up. There were times that we could have taken our foot off the accelerator, but this showed we can take teams to a place where they're not comfortable.

"We're pretty happy with it but satisfied is probably the wrong term, we always want to improve. There's parts of our game that probably let us down."

© Agence France-Presse