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Ireland player ratings vs Wales | 2026 Guinness Men's Six Nations
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Steve Borthwick quizzed on his England future at tense press conference
By Alasdair Mackenzie at Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Steve Borthwick said he and the England players are “hurting” after a third consecutive Six Nations defeat in Italy and insisted he is the right man to lead a struggling team forward despite facing a barrage of criticism.
England looked in a strong position to get back to winning ways in Rome when they were eight points and a man up with little over 20 minutes left to play, but yellow cards for Sam Underhill and captain Maro Itoje sparked a collapse as the Azzurri claimed a sensational and historic 23-18 victory.
It was Italy’s first-ever win in the fixture at the 33rd attempt and left England staring down the barrel at one of their worst-ever Six Nations campaigns ahead of a daunting trip to France on Super Saturday.
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The speed and manner of England’s decline has been one of the shocks of the tournament, coming after a 12-match winning run that put them among the title favourites.
But defeats to Scotland, Ireland and Italy have seen some fans lose faith in Borthwick’s ability to lead the team forward, and he was asked at a press conference for his response to those doubters.
Six Nations
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
France
4
3
1
0
16
2
Scotland
4
3
1
0
16
3
Ireland
4
3
1
0
14
4
Italy
4
2
2
0
9
5
England
4
1
3
0
6
6
Wales
4
0
4
0
1
“Firstly, I would thank the supporters for what they give to the team,” he said.
“Secondly, I recognise that they are hurting like we are hurting. We feel it, we really, really do. We’re not shying away from that fact. These are not the performances and results we want to give our supporters.
“In the last period of time I think we have brought the supporters on a journey with us, playing the kind of attacking rugby they want with the try-scoring we’ve done over the last 12 months, and the way we’ve tried to play has been very good.
“Unfortunately, right now those tries aren’t flowing the way we want them to be. We can’t get across the try line anywhere near as regularly as we were, or as often as we want.
“There are a couple of factors within that, one of them is certainly the contact area, which is certainly really, really hard fought right now. We will make sure we improve on that ahead of France next week.”
With a Rugby World Cup on the horizon next year in Australia, Borthwick is facing his toughest period of criticism yet.
Going into the final round of fixtures, there is a chance – albeit an unlikely one – of ending with the Wooden Spoon should they suffer defeat to France and Wales claim a bonus-point win over Italy in Cardiff.
Asked if he had faith he can lead the team to where he wants them to go, Borthwick said: “Absolutely. This particular year, the Six Nations before the World Cup, we’ve seen it before with the England team going back to 2018 in particular [when England finished fifth with two wins], then the team was in a very good place the following year at the World Cup [finishing runners-up].
“It’s tough losing. We are not hiding away from the fact that we are not where we want to be in terms of results and performances. I said to you that the intensity in the last game wasn’t where it needed to be. I thought the intensity was much improved, for 60 minutes the team did a lot of good things today.”
Asked why he is the right man to take England forward, Borthwick replied: “The team’s growth in the last 12 months has been very, very strong.”
“You can see the vision of where the team is going to be, you see the nature of the players coming through. This is a tough period and what we will do is learn from it and make sure that we’re a stronger team going forward.”
One immediate area for improvement is the one that did the biggest damage in Rome – discipline.
England’s two yellow cards at the Stadio Olimpico continued a tournament-long theme of earning cards in every game so far and proved catastrophic in the final quarter.
“What’s disappointing is the impact the discipline factor and the cards had,” he said.
“It’s not good enough, we’ve always been clear and transparent around it. Seven yellow cards and a red card in four games.
“The opportunity that gives against quality opposition, ultimately that period in 65 minutes was a key turning point today.
“Equally, the team had done a lot of very good things, got themselves in a winning position and looked to be controlling the game very well.”
