England: The one habit Steve Borthwick is keen to stamp out of his side
England head coach Steve Borthwick is keen to stamp out his side’s habit of fading in matches as he doesn’t want his players to have regrets.
In his first two games in charge since taking over from Eddie Jones, Borthwick’s side have lost the second half of their Six Nations clashes against Scotland and Italy.
In their Calcutta Cup opener, England led 20-12 with 30 minutes left to play on the clock and held a one-point advantage in the final 10 minutes. They were unable to hold onto that lead, with Duhan van der Merwe scoring the match-winning try to seal the 29-23 win for Scotland.
While England were able to defeat Italy 31-14, they lost the second 14-12 after dominating the opening half of the match.
After the fallow week, England head to Cardiff to face Wales, with clashes against France and Ireland to follow.
Understanding
Borthwick says that he is making it a priority to understand why England are so vulnerable in the second half.
“At eight points up, I would expect to win that game against Scotland. There was another point we were four points up, and we let it slip,” he explained.
“As we move forward with this team, as we coach and understand, we will be debriefing those things really fully, so we don’t let those opportunities slide.
“You can’t rewind the clock. I talked about my regrets as a player, and I don’t want these players to have regrets.
“We let one slip against Scotland, and we made sure we fully debriefed it to learn from it.
“Against Italy, there was a period late in the game where we let momentum get away from us. I really need to understand why it happened and how it happened.
“We can’t keep letting teams have momentum late in games against us. Clearly we let Italy out of their half, which is exactly what happened against Scotland. Systems take time.”
Catching up to do
The day before England fronted up against Italy, Ireland and France clashed in Dublin in what was the first-ever Six Nations match that featured the top two ranked sides in world rugby.
The pair did not disappoint, producing a marvellous spectacle with a ball-in-play time of 46 minutes, with Ireland emerging 32-19 victors.
The England coach watched the two Test heavyweights slug it out and admits that the Red Rose have some catching up to do, acknowledging the gap.
“It was an incredible Test match. The standard of those teams is phenomenal,” he said.
“If you can use this four-year cycle really well, you should be in a good situation right now, and they are. If you look at them, they are strong. We are a bit behind them.
“I can’t tell you how much, but we are behind them. I can’t do anything about where they are, but we are going to work really hard to catch up as fast as we can.”
The rebuild
Borthwick said England are in the process of rebuilding the side from what he inherited from Jones and insists there is no fast track to success.
“We are going to do the best we can to be as good as we can be. This is a process of a rebuild,” he added.
“I get the sense that people recognise this is a rebuild; I get a sense they recognise there is plenty to do here, and we need to build some strengths here.
“The players have come through a tough time, and I am asking them to do things in a different way and go out on the field and bring their strengths.
“I felt that against Italy, they started to embrace that. Last week there was a reticence to really jump right in. That is what I want them to do.”
Round three of the Six Nations kicks off next week with Ireland travelling to Rome to face off against Italy on Saturday, February 25. Meanwhile, Wales host England later that same day in Cardiff. The action concludes on Sunday with France hosting Scotland in Paris.
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