Steve Borthwick quizzed on his England future at tense press conference

Les plus triste dans cette défaite, c’est le détricotage de notre rugby par l’entraineur qui était avant Steve. Nous avons une équipe qui peut être championne du monde

Pour cela il faut des victoires, mais aussi un jeu que l’on a plus. Etre fort c’est bien; mais le poids nuit à la vitesse. Le rugby moderne c’est une mêlée conquérante et derrière des fusées.

Of course, the likely reaction to this unbelievable train wreck, is parachuting in the likes of BJvR and Hoskins Sototu, which I’m not especially in favour of.

I haven’t been one of those calling for it, but if the RFU want to keep the top tier of Twickenham full between now and the RWC, then it might be time to review the eligibility rules of overseas players.

This is clearly a full on emergency now.

How many of you celebrated England,s wins last year when in reality it was boring boring and how many of you thought Ford was a master at game management and leadership.

The press also repeatedly saying Ford was a world class 10 . NOT.

His only world class is kicking the ball into the air and staying well out of the action .

Three years we have suffered Borthwicks kick chase and I for one cried out for a different plan with Englands only game changer, Marcus Smith to be reinstalled at 10.

Poor Fin was obviously under the same orders as Ford and it is just rubbish .

Borthwick has to go AND NOW.

Steve,when you’re getting interviewed after the game at least look at the person interviewing you, instead of looking so disinterested.

Some of my thoughts on Borthwick:

1) He barely had any experience as a head coach and isn't a leader. He's an excellent technical coach who who would be best served sticking to what he's good at.

2) His inexperience has shown in his inability to bring in and retain proper support staff. He's brought in people woefully underqualified and rather than sack them has moved them into other positions they're not qualified for. FJ wanted no part of it. JEA was moonlighting from Bayonne and never been a defence coach. Wigglesworth in charge of attack and then defence? What on earth does Wigglesworth know about anything other then box kicking which is all we've seen England do for 3 years

3) His only good appointment since FJ has been Blackett who's clearly being overshadowed by Wigglesworth as England stick dogmatically to their percentage based gameplan

4) His uber stats based approach has left England looking muddled. There is no soul to the England team. Scotland showed yet again what a test match team can do when they play with some ambition and instinct. The England lads don't know whether they're coming or going, they've been overcoached to the point of paralysis

5) Where is the precedent for this relentless box kicking? Which other international team his having success doing this? England kick away possession in parts of the field none of the top teams would and we've been doing it time and again like it's fricking groundhog day.

6) The last few times England had humbling defeats to the likes of Scotland under Borthwick they've come out with renewed ambition only to slip back to Borthers Ball a few games later. The messaging coming from the England camp this week has all been about marginal gains that they're really close and have made errors at key moments. This is utter nonsense. The whole gameplan is balls. The messaging should have been - “oh crumbs, we've realised what we've been doing for 3 years was a big waste of time and we've had our pants pulled down twice so we're going to try something new against Italy”. Borthers picked a load of new players and sent them out there with the same ridiculous gameplan. It's not working Steve. That run of 12 games unbeaten was the worst thing to happen for England. It convinced Borthers he was in the right track, he wasn't. Should have known what was coming when he picked Ben Spencer.

7) Before Borthwick we had never lost to Italy but let's not forget we had also never lost to Fiji

What’s so worrying is Borthwick's state of denial. The selection for yesterday's match was poor .. the tactics were poor .. and the in-game management (ie the use of the bench) was poor.

Other than that Steve did a bang-up job and everything is going to plan 😎

England won’t be what they could be with the boring, data/spreadsheet obsessed Borthwick in charge.

It’s been a really tough rollercoaster of a journey with Steve Borthwick.

Occasionally, his teams play really well (RWC 2023 & the 12 match unbeaten run) but they are always short term bursts and he keeps being impeded by selection confusion and fairly dull tactics.

In reality, we have the same issues when he started;

1) Selection confusion at hooker and no progress with the 3rd option.

2) Selection confusion at 8, with Ben Earl blowing hot & cold and having created an option in Tom Willis we have lost him again.

3) No material progress at scrum half since 2023.

4) Selection confusion at 10

5) Selection confusion at 12 & 13 - we have no idea of our best 10/12/13 combos.

6) Selection confusion at 15

7) An underwhelming list of coaches that I doubt any other senior team would take (except Blackett might be given a shot by someone).

After this many games in the roll and the lack of silverwear, I think it’s time to make a call on if his results are good enough to retain his job and give either John Mitchell or Michael Chika a shot with ENG.

Reminds me of when Sir Gareth Southgate lost to Hungary at home, 0-4.

Haha, all you England fans, including you Andy Goode, make me smile so much. Personally I would stick with Borthwick, I believe in backing a coach and allowing them to improve, in the same way Clive Woodward was given that opportunity (and just look at the results). It feels like Borthwick has suffered from paradox of choice in the last 12 months, he was playing Fin Smith then he reverted to Ford, he had Marcus at 15, then he reverted to Steward, etc. He’s going through a process at the moment of working out what works best and what doesn’t work long term. I think it would be a mistake to sack him now, because you have endured the hardest part of his tenure. I reject the notion too that the players aren’t playing for him - that game was incredibly physical with Italy and England were in the box seat up until the two yellow cards. I don’t believe they are far off playing winning rugby. They are miles off RSA, France and a strong NZ, but who isn’t? But if they start again now, with a new coach, it will be an all too familiar result 18 months from now. Many people called for Jones’s head in 2018 and by the world cup it was a very different story. He needs support and to be backed.

Itoje is not there in spirit, he’s their main weakness and at the moment an uninspiring and unmotivated leader.

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.”

If he honestly believes that guff then he needs to see a shrink..!

I’ve just watched this media conference and I thought it was a bad look for Maro. His Head Coach is getting massacred by the media for poor discipline (which Maro was one of them) and he just sits there and says nothing.

Only a clown would point out how nice his clown shoes are after his clown car just fell to bits.

Not interested in listening to a word Borthwick has to say unless it’s to hear him resign

Honestly, I think the players are the major problem. They just don’t look up to it. AND they’re good players.

Itoje is well and truly off form - and looks like he could do with a break. He doesn’t seem to be inspiring anyone on the field.

I thought Jamie George played like a warrior. He’s a real leader - and there aren’t many of them on the field for England at the moment!

Finally, if anyone should get sacked it’s the defence coach. I don’t how, but they’ve managed to take 10 steps backwards. And the players are well and truly off the pace.

The big french ball carriers will power through them, up the middle at this rate, if they don’t do something drastic.

Because they’re not in any shape to outscore the French!

Borthwick just clear off. You were a terrible captain of England in your playing days and you’re an even worse head coach

“The team’s growth in the last 12 months has been very, very strong”

Or rather, it’s been totally undone in just 3 fragile weeks

He’s stealing a living, lads!