England captian Vickery urges players to raise their game
Cipriani comes in for Wilkinson
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Wednesday, 12, Mar 2008 11:09
Phil Vickery has urged England to up their performance when they take on Ireland at Twickenham in the final round of Six Nations fixtures this weekend.
Defeats against Wales and Scotland have left England out of the running for the title and Vickery has called on his players to raise their game or risk joining Jonny Wilkinson on the bench in the future.
"The pressure's on us this weekend to go out and to prove to ourselves and everyone that we can actually play a bit," the England captain told BBC Sport.
"A lot of us are very lucky. We need to perform because if we don't, there are people waiting in the wings."
Wilkinson was dropped after a poor performance in the 15-9 defeat to Scotland and has been replaced at fly-half by 20-year-old Danny Cipriani.
And Vickery thinks highly of the youngster who was controversially dropped from the team before travelling to Murrayfield.
"I think Danny is a natural progression in how a lot of people see that number ten jersey going in the way that he plays," said Vickery.
"He's part of the so-called new breed, the new style of ten."
Cipriani now has the chance to prove himself at stand-off after leaving a night club last week cost him his first start at full-back.
But Vickery warned his Wasps colleague that he will have to fight hard to keep the shirt.
"If Danny Cipriani doesn't perform then he won't be holding on to that jersey," he added.