Six Nations 2014: Courtney Lawes tells England to stay focused

Northampton lock Courtney Lawes can’t wait for England to show the rugby world their capabilities after defeating Wales 29-18 at Twickenham on Sunday.

Lawes was inspirational for England, commanding from the second row by combining some devastating breaks out of defence and some fine line out play.

[We need to] stay focused and stay humble but it’s a great confidence boost

Courtney Lawes

“I think we can really push on now and show the world what we can do but to win like that is a great feeling,” said Lawes.

“[But] we can’t get ahead of ourselves. [We need to] stay focused and stay humble but it’s a great confidence boost for the boys.”

England avenged the humiliating record 30-3 defeat by the Welsh in Cardiff last year with an ambitious display of attacking rugby.

“It’s always a massive game and especially after last year we put a bit more emphasis on it but we’ve still got a job to do,” said Lawes.

Wales had 12 Lions from last year’s tour in the starting X1V as England only had Farrell, which puts into perspective the fine result for a developing English side.

Lawes added: “That was pretty much the Lions team we were playing against and we dealt with it well. I thought we were brilliant today. I think we were solid in defence, any time they made a break we were very quick to shut it down.”

England won the Triple Crown for the first time since 2003 thanks to seven kicks from the trusty boot of Owen Farrell and two clever first half tries.

“It’s great to get a bit of silverware, it means the world to us but we still have a competition to win so we can’t dwell on it,” said the 25-year-old.

The dominant victory puts England level on points with Ireland and France at the top of the Six Nations table.

A large English win in Italy next weekend and a narrow victory for Ireland in Paris could yet see England take the title. Also, If the French and English win, then the title heads back to Twickenham for the first time since 2011

Lawes insisted England need to remain focused: “Next week is really important for us [against Italy]. We can’t dwell on this win, we need to get back out there and make sure we’re at the right intensity for the game in six days in Italy.”