Borthwick Reflects on “Painful Days” Amidst England’s Losing Streak

England’s current five-match losing streak marks their most significant downturn since 2018, when Eddie Jones was at the helm. Following England’s 29-20 loss to South Africa at Allianz Stadium, which extended their sequence of defeats to five games, Steve Borthwick commented, “these are painful days”. Despite an initial strong start, England twice relinquished their advantage before the world champions, South Africa, secured a decisive lead with Cheslin Kolbe’s try in the second half. Head coach Borthwick, whose team experienced a 2-0 series whitewash in New Zealand during the summer, followed by home losses in autumn against the All Blacks and Australia, stated that England did not capitalize on their chances against the Springboks. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Steve Borthwick expressed, “I am incredibly disappointed and frustrated.” He continued, “You see so much good, the way the team came out of the blocks at the start and came at South Africa.” Borthwick added, “Then for a long time the game was toe-to-toe, but in the last period we failed to take our opportunities. How many times did we fail to take our chances in their 22?” He concluded, “These are painful days. At times we are putting ourselves in positions to win games and we are not converting them. Whilst these are painful, we will use them in a positive way to help with our development.” England’s last victory occurred in June against Eddie Jones’ Japan, the team they are scheduled to play next in their concluding fixture of the Autumn Nations Series. England, as the home side, are anticipated to be the favourites to halt their losing streak and defeat their former coach and his Brave Blossoms squad; however, Borthwick emphasized the necessity for his players to gain insights from their Test-level experiences. He further stated, “We have a lot of young players that have come into this team and we have accelerated their transition.” Borthwick elaborated, “As you look towards the future these players are going to be brilliant international players, but right now these days of development are tough.” He affirmed, “We will persevere and be better because of these experiences.” England had not suffered three consecutive home defeats since 2006, yet Borthwick expressed confidence in maintaining the support of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Borthwick remarked, “I’m not going to be talking about private conversations here, but what’s actually more important is the feeling I get.” He continued, “The feeling I get from the RFU is one of absolute support and absolute belief that this team is going in the right direction.” According to Captain Jamie George, England failed to meet the precise standards required at the international level and must implement their “learnings” in their upcoming match against Japan. George informed BBC Radio 5 Live, “We are here to win and we are as frustrated as everyone else with the lack of results.” He added, “We are looking at very different games in the last three, and probably three different reasons as to why we lost.” George concluded, “What I do know is we are working incredibly hard. We are learning and we need to be able to put that on the field.” While England anticipated difficulties in the scrum, George expressed satisfaction with how the home team reacted after initially finding it hard to contend with the Springboks’ strength. He further stated: “There were parts of that game we did really well. I’m really proud of the team because a lot of questions were asked in the week and we fronted up.” George continued, “The scrum was under some pressure in the first half but got better. We got turned over too many times but the way we attacked was pleasing.” He concluded, “Test rugby is about fine margins and applying pressure on pressure and we couldn’t do that against a very good team. Our discipline let us down.”