Steve Borthwick downplayed recommendations from Eddie Jones that England have been wanting too far forward coming into the Six Nations.
England are nursing the injuries of back-to-back defeats in opposition to Scotland at Murrayfield and Eire at Twickenham, leaving them in a precarious place within the competitors.
It prompted England coach Jones to refer again to Borthwick’s feedback earlier than the event, when he set his sights on a final-day title decider in opposition to France.
“On March 14 in Paris, we want to be in a position entering that game where we can achieve what we’re all aiming to achieve,” Borthwick mentioned in January.
Chatting with the Rugby Unity podcast, Jones mentioned: “I’ll go back to the start of the Six Nations. I thought Steve made some very uncharacteristic comments about a title‑decider against France, looking ahead. Steve is the most pragmatic and intelligent coach you could meet, but to look ahead for any team is fraught with danger.”
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Will Greenwood berated England’s efficiency in opposition to Eire within the Six Nations after they fell to a 42-21 defeat.
Borthwick mentioned on Wednesday he had not heard Jones’ feedback.
“I think you know how much respect I have for Eddie Jones,” Borthwick advised Sky Sports activities Information. “Clearly, within the camp here, we’ve always been focused on the next game in front of us.”
England’s efficiency on the weekend drew robust criticism as they have been overwhelmed 42-21 by Eire in entrance of their residence crowd, leaving them observing a vital encounter with Italy on the Stadio Olimpico on March 7.
One other gradual begin noticed them concede 22 factors within the first half-hour, having discovered themselves down 17-0 after simply quarter-hour in opposition to Scotland.
“Quite clearly we are all bitterly disappointed with the performance, the results on Saturday,” mentioned Borthwick. “It’s not the level of performance we wanted to put in. Clearly, we’ve been debriefing this thoroughly and forthrightly to be clear on what we’re going to improve and focus our attention upon.
“I feel that, actually at the beginning of the sport, we had numerous scoring alternatives within the opposition 22 that we didn’t take, and credit score to the opposition for defending so effectively. We should be higher.
“Test rugby, the chances you get, you have to take them. You have to be clinical in those opportunities. Secondly, we turned over too much ball and that puts our defence in a vulnerable position, defending from unstructured situations.”
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Sky Sports activities’ James Cole reviews on England’s heavy loss to Eire at Twickenham within the Six Nations
England’s defence have missed 53 tackles and allowed 73 factors over the past two outings, Borthwick pointing to the influence of his facet’s turnover issues.
Borthwick additionally underlined the necessity for higher depth having been overrun by Andy Farrell’s Eire.
“It’s more related to the number of balls we turned over,” Borthwick mentioned of points in defence. “If you turn over a ball in unstructured situations, you give teams like Ireland so much ball to attack from, they can be so clinical.
“One of many hallmarks of this workforce over the past 12 to 18 months has been the persistently excessive depth with which the workforce operates. And I do not suppose that depth was fairly on the degree we wished it to be. And that is a pointy reminder that in case you drop by one or two per cent at Check degree, then you definately get uncovered.”
It was confirmed on Wednesday that scrum-half Alex Mitchell has been ruled out for the remainder of England’s Six Nations campaign with a hamstring injury.
Jack van Poortvliet is expected to start at scrum-half against Italy, with Raffi Quirke called up as a replacement.
Henry Pollock was certainly one of two England gamers sin-binned within the defeat as their self-discipline was poor once more
“Unfortunately he’s going to be out for a number of weeks, which means he won’t feature for us in the remainder of this championship,” mentioned Borthwick. “Ollie Lawrence isn’t in the squad for these couple of days, we’ve got him here in this training week.
“He had seen a specialist yesterday round his knee and had an injection. We’ll be away from an image of him later this week, however hopefully he’ll be again very quickly.
“There’s also George Furbank who’s not with us, he’s with Northampton this week, so he will play the game for his club side this weekend. A number of players started the week at their clubs, training with us in the latter part of the week and will return to their clubs for game time this weekend.”
For England head coach Borthwick there’s a lot to ponder after two damaging defeats
England had entered their recreation in opposition to Scotland using a 12-match profitable streak after opening their Six Nations marketing campaign in victory over Wales. Borthwick vowed to ship a response to their current setbacks in Italy.
“Clearly there’s been a couple of moments early in games that we’ve not taken opportunities and the opposition have,” he mentioned.
“And there’s been a couple of sin bins in first halves that have put the team under a lot of stress. And we’ve talked through those moments. There’ll be experiences for us that we make sure are positive in the long-term development of this team.
“It is painful now, it is painful for me and for all of the gamers and all of the England supporters. We’ll ensure that we’re higher subsequent week in Rome.”
