British & Irish Lion Tom Youngs insists England unleashed their inner fury on Saturday as the Rugby World Cup hosts put one final marker down before the tournament begins.
England had been soundly beaten by France two weeks ago, but fellow Lions Brad Barritt, Ben Youngs, Dan Cole and Geoff Parling all joined Tom Youngs in the starting XV as Stuart Lancaster’s men responded with an impressive 21-13 victory against Ireland.
The Red Rose were particularly prominent in the first half – heading into the break 12-3 to the good – before Paul O’Connell hit back for Ireland early in the second half.
However Owen Farrell, who appeared seven times in the Lions tour of Australia in 2013, made sure of victory with two late penalties and Youngs believes England are right on track ahead of their World Cup opener against Fiji a week on Friday.
"That was an experienced Irish side and that was a hard test, which was exactly what we wanted," said the hooker.
"It was nice to go out there and go for it and not only did we win, but we left some things out there too, which means we have things we can work on.
"It really feels like the World Cup is here now. We wanted to improve our discipline and set-piece accuracy and we feel that we did that.
"We also left the breakdown alone a bit and attacked it at the right time. We were too eager against France.
"Controlled fury was what we spoke about all week. We wanted to get the Twickenham crowd behind us and we went out there from the first whistle and did that.”
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