What has gone wrong for England this Six Nations?
It is the obvious question to ask after two chastening defeats which have ended any prospect of a first title since 2020.
However, every England fan can see what has gone wrong for Steve Borthwick’s side: they are not scoring enough points and are conceding far too many.
The aerial game is not working and players who were so composed and accurate during a 12-match winning streak are making consistent and uncharacteristic errors – whether in terms of decision-making, discipline or execution of skills.
So instead of asking what has gone wrong, the question is more why has it gone wrong? And how will England put it right against Italy and France over the next two rounds?
Sitting in unseasonably warm February sunshine at the team’s Bagshot training base, head coach Steve Borthwick was in a relaxed but defiant mood as he tried to provide some answers – and some solutions – to England’s alarming slide.
The England boss has highlighted three areas where his team were exposed by Ireland in the record 42-21 loss in London – profligacy in the opposition 22, the gifting of turnover ball to the Irish, and, perhaps most glaringly, a lack of physical intensity.
“We had plenty of chances to score in the first 20 minutes. And if you don’t take your chances in Test match rugby it can be very cruel,” Borthwick explained.
“Secondly, we turned over too many balls, creating unstructured opportunities for Ireland to attack from, which makes it very, very hard to defend. So we put ourselves in a vulnerable position.
“And thirdly, and probably most importantly, the intensity that has become a trademark of the team – it wasn’t at the level we have set for ourselves.”
For Borthwick, the three are inter-linked. A failure to exert scoreboard pressure led to a snowball effect and a game that was quickly out of reach. Physically, England were slow in terms of both thought and deed.
“We failed to take those opportunities and the opposition take their opportunities and suddenly there is scoreboard pressure against you,” he added.
“That is clearly an area of development for us.”
But how do you fix this? There had been an expectation that England would be smarting after the Calcutta Cup defeat, and would put it right against Ireland. Instead, the opposite happened.
Borthwick has pledged to raise the bar in training to prepare the group for the showdown in Rome, with a focus on sharpening their attacking edge in opposition territory.
“We have discussed all aspects of the preparation with the players. We need to drive even further what we are doing in training, and how hard we train. I think we can go further [in training],” he said.
“We need to be much more clinical and there are multiple factors involved [when it comes to finishing chances]. There is a mixture of the physicality needed in the collision area, with the composure you need to make those key decisions at the right time.
“We will be making sure we put the players in those positions as often as possible to ensure we get improvement.”
