England's first victory at Lansdowne Road for eight years on Saturday was "massive" according to captain Mike Tindall.
Tuilagi will only get better says England skipper
England's first victory at Lansdowne Road for eight years on Saturday was 'massive' according to captain Mike Tindall.
England avenged their Six Nations defeat at the same ground in March with a 20-9 victory in Dublin to end their World Cup preparations on a high.
Tindall was especially pleased with his side's performance in defence, which he described as 'outstanding'.
"It's massive, especially a win here," he said. "We were disappointed with how the Six Nations finished and how the Wales game finished and had lot of points to prove to ourselves.
"Credit to our defence, I thought it was outstanding today. Whatever they hit us with we kept hitting them back and that's credit to the boys.
Raw power
"We sat down last night and talked of the stuff that happened last time (against Ireland) and remembered how we felt after the last game."
England also have a potent attacking force in centre Manu Tuilagi, who scored the opening try and posed a constant threat to Declan Kidney's men.
And Tindall, who together with his midfield partner played a key role in England's victory, believes the young centre will continue to improve with every match.
It's difficult because I'd trained with Manu but never played with him," he added. "And you never know how that's going to develop.
"You saw the raw power that Manu's got and the raw talent, and every time he takes the field in that shirt I think he's going to grow and get better and better."
No excuses
Tindall's counterpart Paul O'Connell said his side had allowed too many errors to creep into their game after Tuilagi's sixth minute try.
After that we made a lot of mistakes," he said. "That's one thing we didn't do six months ago (in the Six Nations match), we played mistake-free rugby."
The Ireland skipper lamented the loss of David Wallace to a knee injury but said that Ireland had no excuses for suffering their fourth successive defeat.
He continued: "It's tough to lose guys but so did England. It's not an excuse we can make. We've got a squad of 30 players and we've got to make the most of it."
