Vickery, the experienced tight-head prop, 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 2009 RBS 6 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.

“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, a match Martin Johnson’s men must win if they are to stand any chance of finishing in the top half of the RBS 6 Nations table.

Vickery expects the squad will be in for an uncomfortable time when they resume training today - and judging by his mood on Saturday night, manager Johnson may still not have calmed down.

Brian O’Driscoll scored Ireland’s only try while Vickery was in the sin-bin.

Care’s departure for a barge on Marcus Horan 11 minutes from time, when the game was still in the balance, was the decisive moment and it sent Johnson into fits of rage.

Ronan O’Gara converted the penalty to push Ireland two scores clear and although Delon Armitage’s converted try brought England back to 14-13, their chance had gone.

Asked if he expected a lot of angry words from the England boss, Vickery said: “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.”