Steve Borthwick says England have only themselves to blame for their steep decline in this season’s Six Nations. After his side’s record humbling by Ireland on Saturday, Borthwick said his side are being punished for their poor starts to games and are leaving themselves “a mountain to climb” against quality opposition.
This was England’s worst Six Nations defeat since they lost 53-10 at home to France in 2023 and Borthwick said he was “bitterly disappointed” with his team’s latest sub-par first-half showing. “Unfortunately, for two weeks now, we have given the opposition too many points and we have not got scoreboard presence. We will be looking closely at that and how I set the team up to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“Everybody can see we turned the ball over too many times. You get in field position opportunities to score and then you turn the ball over. Credit Ireland’s defence and Ireland at the breakdown. They were very, very strong there.
“Two weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about 12 wins on the bounce. People were saying all kinds of positive things about this team and not all of them were true. Right now, after two losses, people will be saying other things about this team and they won’t all be true either.
“The truth is somewhere in the middle. We are a team that has plenty of work to do, we know that. I have always said that. Ultimately, in the last two weeks, we have played against two high-quality teams and they have been better than us. Huge credit to Ireland, they took their chances and their kicking game was excellent.”
Borthwick also defended his fly-half, George Ford, who was jeered by large sections of the crowd after squandering two crucial penalty opportunities by kicking the ball dead instead of finding touch. “George has done so much good for England for such a long period of time and particularly over the last spell,” said Borthwick.
“In the autumn he was outstanding and two weeks ago he played really well here against Wales. You want to talk about individuals, but it is about the team. It is all of us today and it was all of us last week. We didn’t find a way to get the result we wanted and that’s all of our responsibility.”
Ellis Genge told BBC Sport: “What do you do? Two weeks in a row conceding so many points in the first 15 minutes. No one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out. It opened up scar tissue from last week. We have to be better at managing that period and stop turning the ball over.
“We probably believed the hype from the first week too much. We can’t let the noise in now. Sorry to the fans, you have been outstanding. We have let everyone down, apologies for that but I promise we will make it better. ”
Maro Itoje, making his 100th appearance for England, also acknowledged his side had been the architects of their own downfall. “Ultimately, we weren’t accurate. We weren’t accurate in and around the breakdown and then when we had opportunities in Ireland’s 22 we weren’t accurate in taking them. We need to look at how we can make sure that when we do have territory and opportunities we convert them.”
Ireland’s Dan Sheehan, in contrast, felt his team and their head coach, Andy Farrell, deserved significant credit. “That performance was right up there with one of the best we’ve ever had,” he told ITV Sport: “To get this win at Twickenham is special.
“He [Farrell] just reminds us that if we get our systems right we have a plan to beat anyone. He gives us incredible belief. You look outside the group and there isn’t too much belief. But he and the coaching group have made us believe and helped us put a performance in today.”
