England captain says hard work paid off

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Maro Itoje said the hard work paid off after England lifted the Junior World Championship trophy for the second time in two years on Friday.

The England captain, who plays his club rugby for Saracens in the Aviva Premiership, paid tribute to the effort put in by his team-mates as they clung on for a 21-20 victory over South Africa at Eden Park in Auckland.

“This has been a fantastic experience for us,” Itoje said. “It’s an amazing feeling. We have been working so hard.

“It’s just joy, this has been a fantastic experience for us, our boys worked so hard and we got what we deserved.

“We believed that if we stayed to our principles and stayed to the plan we’d do well and we did, we won the World Cup. We have a fantastic squad and fantastic coaches – they’re just awesome boys.”

Fly-half Billy Burns, who was instrumental from the kicking tee in England’s victory, highlighted the impact made by the replacements.

“[South Africa] are big physical guys and they really brought it to us,” Burns said. “We felt at half-time we were in a good place but we still needed to push on and to come out and to give that performance I give all credit to the boys.

“It’s a full 23 effort and the boys off the bench made a big impact, to get over the finishing line is a real achievement and I’m really happy. That last 20 minutes was nail biting and to get through it is a massive achievement.

“All credit to the boys, we deserved that. We’ve worked hard all campaign it’s been tough but to come through and win something at the end of it just shows how hard we’ve worked so it’s real satisfying.”

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Article source: http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pro12/david-humphreys-to-depart-ulster-for-gloucester-1.1824805

England captain says hard work paid off