Launchbury named England's QBE Man of the Series

England lock Joe Launchbury

Fans voted in their thousands on www.qberugby.com for their QBE Man of the Series and Launchbury, who played in all four matches, received 42% of the votes, beating fellow nominees Alex Goode (14%), Chris Robshaw (21%) and Geoff Parling (23%).

Launchbury, a former England Under 20 international, made his senior team debut in the opening QBE International 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.

Richard Pryce, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, QBE European Operations said: “We are incredibly proud to announce Joe Launchbury as the fans QBE Man of the Series. Joe is an incredibly talented player and deserves recognition for his outstanding performances during the QBE Internationals”.

Joe 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 QBE International 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.”