Launchbury won’t display ‘strange’ award

Editor

England lock Joe Launchbury has admitted that his man of the match award against Australia won't be going on display at home.

Launchbury was selected for the award to widespread surprise and ridicule, determined by an online poll on Twitter, ahead of far more likely recipients like David Pocock and Bernard Foley.

"The word 'embarassing' may come. It certainly won't be going on the mantelpiece, that's for sure," Launchbury revealed.

"It was a slightly strange award. I feel it could have gone to a whole host of guys on their team but the most important thing for them is they won the game, so I don't think they will be sitting at home worrying about that."

Launchbury and England have done their best to refocus for Saturday's game against Uruguay, despite the off-field reaction to their exit from the Rugby World Cup before the knockout stages.

The Wasps lock did perform better than most of his team-mates last weekend and has been tipped in some quarters to take over the England captaincy in the future.

Launchbury hopes that the players can produce a performance to be proud of in the dead-rubber, while adding that playing in Manchester would be an exciting experience.

"We have to come out on the weekend and wear the white shirt with pride and put in a good performance. But we have to learn from this and learn how to manage expectations and big games," Launchbury said.

"We hope it is a positive experience. We understand we have played a lot of games at Twickenham.

"It's going to be exciting for the crowd and encourage people to take up and play rugby union."