'Deal with the facts': Borthwick defends England's card trouble

Embattled England boss Steve Borthwick has hit out at the perception that his team have a discipline problem heading into the Rugby World Cup. Three different players have been shown red cards in the last four games, card trouble exacerbated by last week’s three yellows in one fell swoop versus Wales.

The latest mishap to hinder England was the 53^rd-minute Billy Vunipola tackle on Andrew Porter in Dublin, a headshot that was initially yellow-carded before getting quickly upgraded to red via the TMO bunker.

That will require preparation for and attendance at a disciplinary hearing, a situation that will hamper Vunipola’s training availability in the coming days similar to what happened to skipper Owen Farrell last week and is set to be repeated with his separate appeal scheduled for Tuesday.

Kiwi pundits react to Owen Farrell’s red | The Breakdown

Kiwi pundits react to Owen Farrell’s red | The Breakdown

Borthwick was rumbustious in defending his team, highlighting that the two red cards prior to Vunipola’s sending-off, the reds for Freddie Steward and Farrell, were both rescinded days later by the rugby judiciary.

Presented with the statistic that England have been flashed seven cards of different colours in the last four games (reds for Freddie Steward, Farrell and Vunipola, along with yellows for Jack Willis, Henry Arundell, Ellis Genge and Steward), Borthwick snappily retorted: “Just be conscious that cards have been rescinded, let’s just be conscious before you enjoy quoting numbers. Let’s just deal with the facts.

“The last time we were here (in Dublin) we got a card that then got rescinded. We ended up playing 50 minutes with one man down that got rescinded. So what are we talking about exactly?”

Last weekend’s three Twickenham yellow cards was the answer given back to him. “Do you want to talk through each of them? Each one of them was a different type of incident with a different type of matter.

“One of them was a scrum offence that came from other scrum offences before that player [Genge] had gone on the pitch. What we got to do here is be conscious of what we are talking about. Do I want 15 players on the pitch? Absolutely I want 15 players on the pitch… Let’s be clear I want 15 players on the pitch.”

So where does it leave England? Waiting on disciplinary hearings for Farrell and Vunipola in the coming days, distractions that could carry over into their September 9 Rugby World Cup start versus Argentina in Marseille if either player cops a ban.

“We respected the (Farrell) process last week and we thought we had a conclusion on Tuesday and we didn’t. It’s going forward into next week, we will respect the process again. We respected the process when we were here the last time with Freddie Steward as well. We will continue to do so.

“You need to be ready to adapt,” he added regarding what the disciplinary room distractions mean for his squad of 33. “We know that all the evidence at the previous World Cups that we need to adapt.”

It’s been quite the fiery baptism for the rookie Test-level head coach, a wounding 2023 with five deflating losses in eight outings so far. “This was a great challenge against the No1-ranked side in the world [Ireland], they have been building very well over a good number of years.

“For the period where we kept 15 men on the pitch, it was a tight battle you would say. Ireland are such a strong side. It’s a big challenge and when you go to 14 men it’s very difficult.”

But what are you specifically learning as a rookie boss with all this adversity, the latest dose being the 10-29 loss to Ireland? “We move forward. All the coaches and players, we move forward every week in terms of the lessons.

“Now I have been very clear about what we need to develop in terms of priority areas over the next couple of weeks to be ready for September 9.

“I have talked about our conversion of opportunities in the final third, I have talked about that contact skill and turning over too much ball there. That is where we are going to focus our attention.

“Certain aspects aren’t where we want to be. It’s quite clear in terms of our attack we are turning over too much ball in the opposition 22, so you can’t build the phases and the momentum to get the scores.

“That is what Ireland did really well, got into the 22 and then they were able to keep ball and were able to score with different elements. Crossfield kick, wide passes. They were able to score points and we weren’t. We are disappointed that we haven’t been able to do that. We want to make sure we get progress in that area.

“We saw the players want to start to move the ball more which in terms of seeing some development we saw that, moving the ball to the edge more than we have previously. But ultimately you need to build pressure on the opposition and if you turn the ball over early in the phase count you can’t put pressure on the opposition.”

The blunt string of performances leave England heading into their final Summer Nations Series match with Fiji fancied next Saturday to pull off a result at Twickenham on the back of posing some tough questions this weekend of France in Nantes.

“They have got tremendously dangerous players and know how to play very well,” admitted Borthwick. “As soon as they see a fraction of space they have got the talent in their team that is able to capitalise on that and take opportunities.

“We want to win. Winning is a habit and we want to get wins on the board. This team hasn’t won enough games and we want to win every game we go into. We want a quality performance and we want a great result.”