Phil Vickery predicts a bright future for England after they beat - and is already looking forward to tackling New Zealand.
England captain backing side to shine in the future
Captain Phil Vickery predicts a bright future for England after they ended the Six nations with a positive 33-10 victory over Ireland at Twickenham - and he is already looking forward to tackling New Zealand.
Three tries from Paul Sackey, Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon plus 18 points from the boot of sparkling debutant Danny Cipriani gave Brian Ashton's side a comfortable win over Ireland.
The win also saw England finish second in the Six Nations table and showed signs of real promise ahead for Ashton's men.
Vickery was pleased eh and his troops ended a difficult campaign with a welcome victory, and is now looking for more improvement going forward.
England face New Zealand this summer in Auckland and Christchurch and Vickery is looking forward to testing themselves against the best.
"I'm pleased for the guys. Last weekend was a huge disappointment," said Vickery reflecting on England's poor defeat in Scotland.
"We are not the finished article, but there have been massive changes in personnel on the playing and coaching side."
Success
"We have the nucleus of what can be a highly successful England team in the future.
"In the two tests against New Zealand we will take on the best in the world and we know we will have to play better.
"It's going to be bloody tough. The All Blacks have set the standard of international rugby and how it should be played.
"If we have ambitions to be one of the best teams in world rugby we have to enjoy that experience.
"If we play at the level we did against Ireland and a bit better I believe we can take on the All Blacks.
"We have to set high standards and get the edge back into our training and our philosophies. If you want to be part of this team the bar has to be raised."
Cipriani's display has piled the pressure on Jonny Wilkinson to try and win his place back, and Vickery says competition for places is key.
"Ultimately the success of this England team will come from competition," Vickery added. "Danny has stuck his hand up and will create a lot of problems when it comes to selection.
"He is a new kid on the block. Danny's the kind of guy who will go back to his club and sit down and analyse what he needs to improve on."
Ashton praise
The skipper also had words of support for head coach Brian Ashton whose job appeared to be under threat after a string of disappointments
"Brian's come in for a hell of a lot of criticism.
"Some of the things which have been said about him have been pretty horrific.
"Brian's a proud man. He cares about his job and about this England team. We all want to be successful.
"Credit to the coaches, they have really fronted up. But it's about performing at a high level consistently.
"Somehow it always seems to take something really drastic for us to perform at the levels we need to."
