The French star inspiring England 9 Jack van Poortvliet, and it's not Dupont

Jack van Poortvliet has revealed that Steve Borthwick is encouraging England to play with ambition – but the head coach is happy to give the hairdryer treatment when needed.

England face South Africa at Ellis Park on Saturday week in their opening fixture of the newly-created Nations Championship, with Fiji in Liverpool and Argentina in Santiago del Estero completing the 25,000-mile July itinerary.

A four-Test losing run that resulted in a worst-ever Six Nations performance has raised the stakes against the back-to-back world champions, but Van Poortvliet insists they are determined to play without fear.

“You always know that playing for England brings added pressure and can create that feeling of ‘I don’t want to make a mistake’,” Van Poortvliet said.

“That’s the big thing we’re trying to push at the moment and Steve has been brilliant at it.

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“We’re trying to push ourselves to play big and make good decisions and whatever you’ve done before, back yourself to do it on this stage.

“Steve’s good at reading the room at half-time and seeing what boys need and he’ll do whatever he thinks is best to get a response.

“Even if it looks good on the scoreboard, he might have seen something that isn’t up to standard and he will give you the hairdryer for that.

“We might be losing and it will be a calmer message. His through process will be around whatever gets the best response from the team.”

Van Poortvliet is competing with Alex Mitchell and Ben Spencer for the two available scrum-half slots against South Africa and has been looking across the Channel for pointers on how to enhance his game.

“I’ve taken steps forward with my defence this season,” the Leicester star said. “It’s a big area now for scrum-halves because you’re defending in the line and filling in gaps a lot more now.

“I took a lot of inspiration from what I’ve seen Maxime Lucu do for Bordeaux this season. The difference he makes for his team in defence is ridiculous.

“I’ve been trying to make a difference in defence and my mindset this season has also been to get my running game going as much as I can.

“Last season I was stuck in a mindset of trying to be consistent. I’ve learned this year that I can only be consistent with a mindset of ‘go out to stand out’.”