The area where Courtney Lawes believes England most need to improve

Stand-in skipper Courtney Lawes has named the area where England most need to improve. Steve Borthwick’s team snapped a three-match losing streak with last weekend’s comeback Summer Nations Series victory over Wales.

That success came after a dramatic Twickenham second half where the home side were at one stage reduced to 12 players. A Maro Itoje try from a lineout drive was pivotal in the 19-17 success, but tries have been difficult to come by during Borthwick’s first year in charge.

England have scored just three in their four most recent matches and with the Rugby World Cup set to start with a September 9 assignment versus Argentina in Marseille, Lawes has spoken about the areas where his team must quickly get better.

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“We have not performed as well as we would have liked to,” he admitted ahead of this Saturday’s daunting Summer Nations Series fixture away to the world No1-ranked Ireland. “There is a lot of stuff for us to work on. The attack is a big one for us, we are working very hard on it.

“We want to go out there and score tries, we want to play good rugby because we have got the talent in the team. So, that is a big area for us obviously.

“Set-piece and general kind of forward work is going to be huge for us as well going forward because we want to be a pack that is feared again. Plenty to work on but we are definitely going in the right direction.

“It’s just a matter of getting to know each other and trying to bring out the best in each other, playing to each other’s strengths,” he added. “We are working hard on it, and we get another opportunity this weekend.”

Head coach Borthwick added to Lawes’ verdict. “I’ll come in and build on that. These players are incredibly high quality. This should be a building process for a number of years to get to be where we want to be as a pack.

“I care deeply about forward play and working with these guys. What we are doing is squeezing every minute out of training that we can. It’s immense credit to Courtney and the other forwards who are working as hard as they possibly can to step forward.”