Vickery trudges off the field at Croke Park after being shown a yellow card © Getty Images

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Prop Phil Vickery has vowed to get his "house in order" after joining England's roll of yellow card shame against Ireland.

Veteran Vickery and replacement scrum half Danny Care were both sin-binned as England conceded 18 penalties in Saturday's 14-13 defeat to Ireland. England have now been shown 10 yellow cards in four Tests and conceded an average of over 13 penalties a game so far in the Six Nations.

"If you keep giving away penalties at some stage the referee is going to sin-bin someone - but we can't keep talking about it, we've got to do something about it. And we've got to do something quickly because at international level that's not good enough," said former England captain Vickery. "It's frustrating. For my sin-binning the referee said I didn't let go and I did. I didn't get out the way but I let go.

"I'll be disappointed, of course I will. I don't like giving penalties away and I did. I've got to get my own house in order. If we can all do that then we'll make some progress. We know what we've got to do. We've got to listen and stop giving away penalties. It's simple. If you give away penalties you're going to lose Test matches."

England now have a fortnight to prepare for the visit of France to Twickenham, and Vickery expects the squad, who resume training today, to be on the receiving end of a few harsh words from manager Martin Johnson.

"I would think so. I don't blame Johnno for that. We've got to deal with it. Johnno was very angry in the changing room after the game and I think he had every right to be. We talked about it after Italy and Wales. We've got to do something about it. If we don't it's not much fun."

Johnson has received a vote of confidence from his Rugby Football Union bosses with Martyn Thomas, the RFU chairman, insisting he is the right man to solve the disciplinary problems. "Like Martin , I am pretty angry about this, but he is the man to sort it out," said Thomas. "We have problems with discipline, but it's not wilful and a lack of experience among the players is a factor in this."

The England camp has received a boost however with the news that wing Paul Sackey and fly-half Toby Flood should be fit for the visit of France in two weeks time. Sackey limped from the field early in the second-half with what looked like an ankle injury, but x-rays have revealed that there is no bone damage and that the Wasps man should make a swift recovery.

Flood suffered a mild dead leg during the game and will receive treatment as the rest of the squad takes two days off before reconvening for training in Yorkshire.