Steve Borthwick staunchly defends under-fire star amid wave of criticism

A hard watch. Difficult to pick out any England player who had a good game…or even an average game. Worryingly, I don't see replacements who would make a difference..

Hopefully 🤞, Italy and France will do us a favour and put us out of our misery!!

I don’t want to jump on the digging out George Ford angle. More the rhetoric at the start of the tournament of him being one of the best in the world along with Finn Russel with no mention of the many other top 10’s.

Then Borthwicks handling of Finn Smith - shocking

Also think Borthwicks sent the team out in the last 2 weeks with ‘if we play our game we win, without a specific plan for the team they’re playing.

Oh and finally, Bevan Rodd who’ scrummaging just doesn’t look up to it at the top level. Media says we’ve got a prop injury crisis but the likes of Afolabi Fasogbon can’t get a look in even after dominating at scrum time week in week out.

All in all it’s on Steve Borthwicks..

It’s probably time for Steve Borthwick to admit he made a mistake by selecting Ford and bring Fin Smith back before it’s too late.

I thought Steve was finally growing into the role and had moved past this turgid phase but clearly we are back there and have let a golden opportunity slip through our fingers this season.

It is very easy to throw Ford under the bus today, but in truth, many stalwarts were terrible. Take your pick from, in particular, Cowan-Dickie, Itoje, Curry, Pollock, Freeman and Steward. While Genge, Chessum, Arundell and Lawrence weren’t much better.

The line out was a mess between Cowan-Dickie and Itoje calling, england were destroyed at the breakdown were Curry was anonymous and he gaps in the midfield were glaring were between freeman and Lawrence ireland had a field day. Balacoune, O’Brien and McCloskey finding gaps with ease.

The only thing that went well was the carrying which they made meters consistently and in the scrum which they largely won (Ireland has had issues here for over 2 years).

Ford had a poor showing and at this stage of his career would be a better bench option to close games out, but Marcus Smith is a utility impact player who at test level is yet to convince and probably never will. So the great saviour is Fin Smith, though he has a safe pair of hands, has he got the x-factor or the test level playmaking ability or to lead a pack? This was a player, coaching and systematic breakdown. The bottom line is they aren’t anywhere near good enough yet, the squad is unbalanced in many positions and they need a plan B.

One review said Ford was criminally bad. Yet Borthwick supports him after 2 stinkers .

Marcus was taken off v AB,s while leading and playing a blinder . Ford missed his kicks and we lost .

How on earth did Ford stay on the pitch when he was obviously poor.

Borthwick should look at himself and ask is he completely mistaken about fords worth to the team against top teams. He shines when under no pressure but he is useless against top tier .

If he is picked again v Italy then . Something is very wrong .

Maro usually goes missing when the tides is against them.

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I think it would have been a much better interview if Borthwick had said it’s my job to select the players, so if I pick them and they don’t perform, blame me, it’s my fault.

Then we could actually make progress and say what are you going to do differently in 2 weeks time as the current performance of this team is inadequate and from this response it suggests Borthers remains in denial.

It’s well documented that players are regularly subjected to drug testing after matches. However, are coaches asked to pee in a bottle after press conferences?? If ever a coach should be whisked away by the anti-doping wallahs from WADA .. it should be Steve Borthwick!!

Ford and Borthwick need to go. Better options available in both cases. Ford was dreadful last week and even worse today. As for Borthwick he hasn’t prepared the team properly and the coaching looks woefully inadequate. Enough is enough, it’s time for a change!

As Scotland struggle against Wales it must be noted how much an emotional effort the match was last week. Doing that two weeks in a row is not possible.

So England were a little down and Ireland were very up. It remains to be seen if England had decided to run the ball more in advance which would have been an error given what Stuart McCloskey did to Ford.

Given the difficulty of going from week 2 to 3 it could be argued that England’s draw was particularly tough. Good test for a later RWC knock out match they failed. This is why SA have almost two full quality teams.

As ever Borthwick head in the sand.

If he can’t see that the England back line is poor and confused he should be asked to leave.

His stubbornness in not accepting his kick and rush has been found out is dreadful .

What one asks is the attack coach doing .

Asleep at the wheel or blindly following orders .

Bad ones at that.

To be fair no one on the English team played very well. So focusing on Ford is unfair.

But it is time for Borthwicke to make a change at 10. Bring George off the bench.