Six Nations 2014: Stuart Lancaster pleased with 'fearless' England

Chris Robshaw

Stuart Lancaster said his England team were rewarded for playing without fear in their 29-18 win over Wales.

Victory at Twickenham gave England a first Triple Crown since 2003 and kept their Six Nations title hopes alive.

Lancaster said the win helped make up for last year's 30-3 defeat by Warren Gatland's Wales in Cardiff.

"We've tried to remove the fear of playing, and when you've got the courage of your convictions it generally pays off," Lancaster said.

"It's nice to get the win to put last year's result in Cardiff to bed. We lost fair and square on that day but this was our day and we deserved to win.

"I was really proud of the team. They are a great set of lads who always want to play hard for each other and the shirt."

England can still win the title with a big margin of victory in their final game in Italy next weekend but captain Chris Robshaw accepts the chances of finishing top of the table are slim.

He said: "This gives us a shot going into next week. We need a bit of luck with Ireland going to Paris.

"It's a massive scalp - we all know what happened last year. We'd lost the last two times we'd played them and we needed some momentum back. We've now got ourselves back into contention, and we're ticking along.

"But it's a massive ask next week. We have to just focus on our own game and can't focus on points. We've had some difficult fixtures against Italy - we've got a day less to recover and we have to make sure we're fresh.

"Emotionally, too, we have to make sure we're on top of it."

Lancaster echoed his captain's note of caution, stressing that they have to focus on their own performance.

"Ireland are a quality side," said Lancaster. "But France on their day at home, with something to play for - who knows?

"But we can't control that, we're first up. We've got a proud Italian side to play against who gave us a hard time two years ago and gave us a hard time last year at Twickenham.

"So we've got to get our heads right and do what we can do and control the controllables for us."