Sarries hooker George not surprised by emphatic win for England against France
England's Owen Farrell (left) scores his side's fifth try against France (pic: Gareth Fuller/PA) - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Plenty of Sarries stars were in action for their countries in the Six Nations over the weekend
Saracens hooker Jamie George says he wasn’t surprised at the way England began dismantling France during their emphatic 44-8 Guinness Six Nations victory at Twickenham on Sunday.
Jonny May’s blistering hat-trick of tries in the first 29 minutes virtually ended the contest billed as ‘Le Crunch’.
Eddie Jones’ troops featured five Sarries players in the starting line-up, including brothers Billy and Mako Vunipola, George Kruis and England captain Owen Farrell.
“It wasn’t a suprise for us really,” admits George. “We put a big focus on that in the week and did that against Ireland so we made sure we did that today.”
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England, who beat Ireland in their Six Nations opener, play Wales, who are also unbeaten, at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on February 23 in a mouth-watering top-of-the-table clash and George hopes his side improve further come match time.
“It’s a big challenge whenever we play at the Millennium Stadium,” he added.
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“It’s going to be tough, but our main focus for us right now is ourselves.
“We’ve got to make sure we try to improve and get better.”
Sarries colleague Farrell, who contributed 17 of the hosts 44 points including a try in the 55th minute, was pleased with the way his side employed their tactics on the French.
“We thought we started very well,” said the 27-year-old.
“We were just looking to play for space and I think we’ve found a fair bit of space.
“We moved and put the ball in behind them.
“Some of our play was unbelievable and the lads kept put piling pressure on. We seem to play a lot of the game in the right path of the field.”
Away from Sarries’ England contingent, two other players for the north Londoners were also on national duty at the weekend.
Fullback Liam Williams was just one of five players to keep his starting berth for Wales as they recorded an unconvincing 26-15 victory in Italy.
Williams helped set up the first try for Wales in that game after breaking through the Italian defence.
Club colleague Sean Maitland, meanwhile, made his first appearance in this year’s competition for Scotland as they went down 22-13 at home to defending champions Ireland.
