England head coach Steve Borthwick has announced plans for an urgent review into the team’s inability to see out victories in close games. The review will take place when the squad reconvenes tonight (Sunday).
Following Saturday’s narrow defeat against the All Blacks, Borthwick is calling on his team to show more ruthlessness in their upcoming match against Australia.
He expressed frustration at Twickenham as England continued their trend of letting their opponents off the hook.
Despite leading 22-14 around the hour mark, a chaotic finish and six missed points by George Ford resulted in a 24-22 loss. Borthwick plans to meticulously analyse the botched drop goal routine that occurred in the final move of the match with the squad.
However, he firmly believes that the situation would not have reached that point if England had maintained pressure on New Zealand.
Borthwick stated: “It has been drilled a lot. Would we do it differently or better? I’ll have a good look at it and I’ll debrief it with the players. You’re against a side as good as that, we came that close to actually winning that game, a couple of kicks.
“I’m quite clear I want to make sure we don’t want it to have to come down to those margins. It shows we’re a good team but we need to be better.”
Australia, who recently won a summer series against Wales but performed poorly in the Rugby Championship, are next to face England.
Their coach Joe Schmidt, who took up his position in March, is known as one of rugby’s top strategists. Borthwick stated: “In Joe they’ve got an incredible coach and they have been together for the last three months.
“We know we’re going in against a very side that will be really well drilled. We’ll make sure our performance is a step up.”
