Hat-trick hero Jamie George was keen to praise his fellow forwards as England defeated Georgia 40-0 in their opening match of the Autumn Nations Cup.
The hosts got their campaign off to the perfect start at Twickenham, with a George’s three tries propelling them to the comfortable victory, as he became the first England hooker to claim a hat-trick in the process.
Debutant Jack Willis also dotted down in the capital, with the Wasps flanker crossing for the opening try just 14 minutes into his first international appearance.
Elliot Daly also touched down late in the first half for Jones’ side, before Dan Robson rounded off the scoring late on, in a dominant performance against a physically imposing Georgian outfit.
“It was a great team performance, I thought it was brilliant,” George said. “We knew the threat that Georgia would pose up front and how much pride they take in their set piece.
“The most pleasing thing for me was forwards-wise we stepped up to the plate. It’s something that we pride ourselves on, we spoke about it before the game.
“We’re back here at Twickenham, obviously we’re missing the crowd massively, but at the same time we always take a huge amount of pride in our set piece.
“We were constantly trying to push it and it was great to be able to get over the line.”
It was one-way traffic right from the off at Twickenham, with the newly crowned Guinness Six Nations Champions stamping their authority on the game from the first whistle.
The attacks were coming thick and fast from England in the early stages, with the Georgian defence lasting just under a quarter of an hour before Willis powered over from a close-range scrum.
It then turned into the George show, as the hooker notched two tries in four minutes to extend the hosts’ lead, with the power and strength of the pack proving too much for the visitors’ defence.
And the all-important bonus point was assured before half time, as Jonathan Joseph arrowed through the Lelos’ defence, before teeing up Daly to cruise over in the corner for a 26-0 half-time lead.
It was much the same in the second half, with George completing his history-making hat-trick as he bulldozed over from close range once again, before Robson’s try sealed the deal late on.
The victory leaves England top of Group A after the first weekend of fixtures ahead of the visit of Ireland next weekend, and captain Owen Farrell believes Saturday’s victory will stand them in good stead for that crucial clash.
“Obviously Georgia pride themselves on their set piece, but then so do we,” Farrell said.
“To do what we did in the first ten minutes, and the amount of scrums that we had and the amount of opportunities we got off the back of it was brilliant.
“We’ll have a look at it. There’s a lot of good stuff out there but we’ll see how we can be more clinical. It another big game for us to look forward to.”
