England’s last-gasp victory over Ireland at Twickenham was one of the “most emotional” and “proudest” days of captain Jamie George’s career.
England responded after a disappointing 30-21 defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield in their previous game.
“The reason for that [emotion] was that there were a lot of doubters after that Scotland performance,” George said.
“Internally we didn’t listen to the noise outside. What we knew was important was for us to go out there and do that to a team like Ireland, who for me are the best team in the world at the minute.
“It was a really, really special day.
“We spoke a lot about making Twickenham a really difficult place to play and I thought we did that.”
Steve Borthwick’s side started the championship with wins over Italy and Wales but a below-par display at Murrayfield, where England made 24 handling errors and conceded 22 turnovers, halted their unbeaten run and seemingly ended their title hopes.
But after an inspired comeback victory over the reigning champions, England now need to beat France in Lyon next Saturday and hope the result in Dublin – where Ireland face Scotland – goes their way to secure their first championship since 2020.
After lacking a cutting edge in attack at Murrayfield, England scored three tries against an side Ireland who had previously conceded 13 tries in 13 Six Nations games.
“There was a lot of criticism around our attack and to go up against Ireland and score three tries – not many teams do that,” said George, who watched the nerve-jangling final moments from the sidelines after being replaced by Theo Dan.
The result ended Andy Farrell’s side’s bid for back-to-back Grand Slams and a record-equalling 11-game unbeaten run in the competition.
Despite a run to the semi-finals of the World Cup, Borthwick’s team have lacked consistency but delivered arguably their best performance under their head coach.
“The team has been progressing. We are four games into building a new team here. I am delighted for the players and especially the supporters,” Borthwick told BBC Sport.
“When you look at that game the players showed incredible intensity from the first minute to the 80th minute.”
Borthwick said there were injury concerns over Chandler Cunningham-South and Henry Slade before the final match against France and played down an exchange of words with Ireland boss Andy Farrell shortly before half-time.
“It’s between Andy and me. I know people want to read things into that but Andy and I have a good relationship,” Borthwick said.
‘Apparently we are the worst England team ever’
England number eight Ben Earl scored one of England’s three tries and made an important late line-break in another player-of-the-match performance.
The 26-year-old said the passing of George’s mother, Jane, who died a week before the Scotland game, and Danny Care winning his 100th cap had had an emotional impact on him.
“I am a bit emotional because Jamie lost his mum recently and we have spoken a lot about that,” Earl told ITV Sport.
“Then Danny’s 100th cap, and some of the rubbish that has been thrown at this team in the past week – apparently we are ‘the worst England team ever’. We have done well for that accolade.
“We knew from the beginning if we played our best game we would have a chance. Everything came together – we are very fortunate.”
