England players should be held accountable for run of defeats

Steve Borthwick is facing questions over his England future but Jamie George believes it is the players who should be held accountable for a run of five-successive defeats.

South Africa emerged 29-20 winners at Allianz Stadium on Saturday to continue an autumn washout in the wake of losses to New Zealand and Australia, with the visit of Japan completing the series in a week’s time.

It is their worst sequence of results since 2018 and for the first time since 2006 they have lost three consecutive matches at Twickenham, piling pressure on to Borthwick.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi on Marcus Smith’s growth as a player

The Springboks might have inside knowledge of Marcus Smith’s “strengths and weaknesses”, but they must be street-smart in dealing with the unpredictable playmaker.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi on Marcus Smith’s growth as a player

The Springboks might have inside knowledge of Marcus Smith’s “strengths and weaknesses”, but they must be street-smart in dealing with the unpredictable playmaker.

England’s head coach has the backing of the Rugby Football Union despite the alarming slump – albeit inflicted by high-calibre opposition – and George insisted he was not to blame for the decline.

“We are as frustrated as everyone else and it’s important for us as players to take responsibility for the last three performances,” the team’s captain said.

“When you look at the positions that we put ourselves in across all three games and when we play to the plan, I think we are a very, very dangerous team.

“When we stray away from that, we allow teams opportunities and that’s exactly what happened against South Africa.

“We will be holding our hands up, we will be looking at ourselves and we’re making sure that we find the fixes so that we are ready to go against Japan.

“Of course we are disappointed with the results. We wanted to give the England fans three wins for three.

“There are definitely things that, of course, we needed to get better at. We need to find the fixes to closing out games.

“But I have every confidence and belief in the players and the staff that we will do everything we possibly can to be a significantly better team come next weekend, but also looking ahead to the Six Nations.”

To continue a theme of the last five Tests, England were unable to convert a winning position and played their decisive final quarter without their captain on the field.

This time George was replaced by Luke Cowan-Dickie with 32 minutes to go and the Saracens hooker revealed in an interview with BBC Sport that “I felt all right out there”.

Borthwick’s use of his replacements has come under the spotlight this autumn, although at least against South Africa the influential Marcus Smith was allowed to finish the game at fly-half.

“We have leaders all the way across the field. If you look at the team that was on at the end, there was plenty of leaders in that team,” George said.

“If you speak to every player, they would always want to play every moment of every game. The hooker jersey is an 80-minute performance across two players.”

Jack Van Poortvliet, making his first England appearance in over a year, insisted it was up to the team to halt the slump.

“It is on us as players, we are in that position to go and get a result and turn it around,” the Leicester scrum-half said.

“We are going to keep learning, keep getting better and keep pushing, but the underlying feeling now is frustration. We are a close group that is progressing, but we need to fix the errors.”