Joe Launchbury named England’s Man of the Autumn Series
21-year-old Launchbury, above, played in all four matches and received 42% of the votes beating fellow lock Geoff Parling (23%) as well as captain Chris Robshaw (21%) and full-back Alex Goode (14%).
The former England U20 star made his Test debut in the opening fixture of the series against Fiji coming off the bench after 50 minutes.
He followed that up with another substitute appearance against Australia before being handed his first Test start against South Africa. He kept the starting shirt for the final game against New Zealand and played a crucial role in the 38-21 win.
Launchbury said: “To win this award is massively humbling and I’m grateful to everyone who voted – to be honest I was shocked to even be shortlisted. It’s been an amazing month for me, to make my debut in that first game against Fiji was a massive honour – and at the time the biggest achievement of my career – but as the weeks went by I felt like I grew in confidence and for it all to culminate in that amazing win against New Zealand topped it all off.
“As Tom Wood said after the New Zealand game, although he won man of the match, any number of players could have taken the award, and that’s exactly how I feel picking up this award. You’re only as good as the 14 players around you and even when our backs were against the wall we stuck together.”
