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Elliot Daly on why England's victory didn't completely feel like a record-breaking performance
By Nick Heath
England trounced Ireland in record-breaking fashion at Twickenham on Saturday, running in eight tries as they sprinted to a whopping 57-15 win over their Six Nations rivals who had clinched the 2018 Grand Slam at the same ground when they last visited London.
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It wasn’t all one-way traffic, however, as Ireland twice led in the first half before capitulating in a fashion that has given their defence coach Andy Farrell quite a headache heading towards the World Cup next month in Japan.
Speaking in the aftermath of the victory, Elliot Daly told RugbyPass how the record-setting victory didn’t initially feel like a procession: “Weirdly probably not in that first half. We felt in control but obviously, we know how good Ireland are, how physical they are and they got themselves in some good positions in that game.
“But our defence and a few key turnovers really helped us in that first half. It’s just the way we came out in that second half and tried to put our game on them and put them down in their 22, put their lineout under pressure and tried to get some scores off that.”
Ireland missed 34 tackles and leaked like a sieve, but England were also firing on all defensive cylinders. Their line speed and aggression when opponents are in possession is becoming a hallmark of this Eddie Jones side and shone through again at Twickenham.
Billy Vunipola talks to RugbyPass about his brother Mako's injury situation following England's win over Ireland
https://t.co/skq1mEeDJ0— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 24, 2019
“It’s the way rugby’s going at the moment, everyone’s trying to do it. If you do it well, then it puts the attacking team under pressure, if you do it badly then you end up probably with them scoring a try. It’s one of those things you have got to work on constantly and we are doing that at the moment with John Mitchell.”
Daly scored England’s second try, with winger Joe Cokanasiga grabbing a brace of scores in the eight-try haul. “The back three was exciting,” enthused the full-back.
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“Especially for to throw the ball to Jonny (May) and let him do something or throw the ball to big Joe and hopefully he runs over someone and does something… those two are playing really well and Jonny coming back in for his first game was excellent.”
WATCH: Elliot Daly talks to RugbyPass following England’s record-breaking win at Twickenham
