The 'wonderful' Wallaby who has left Steve Bortwick with 'work to do'

England head coach Steve Borthwick has said that his side have “got some areas to improve,” singling out their work at the breakdown, following their 25-7 win over Australia at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.

Despite the victory, England coughed up a lot of possession at the breakdown in their opening match of the Quilter Nations Series, either by being turned over or conceding penalties, with Borthwick saying his side “didn’t do our jobs well enough”.

The hosts lost possession 19 times in a game that was evenly matched for a large portion in the middle, with Australian openside Fraser McReight winning five turnovers.

After the match, Borthwick hailed the 26-year-old as “an incredible player,” and one who has clearly highlighted deficiencies that need to be addressed before contests with Fiji, the All Blacks and Argentina over the coming month.

Borthwick is particularly wary of the threat Fiji will pose at the breakdown next week, leaving him and his side with some “work to do” this week.

“We’ve got some areas to improve,” Borthwick said. “I thought Fraser McReight stole too many balls from us. He’s a wonderful player, I think we can all say that. He’s an incredible player.

“We probably didn’t do our jobs well enough, so we’ve got some work to do in that area. We know Fiji challenge the breakdown from inside and outside and they’re a counter-ruck threat. So we’ve got some work to do there this week.”

With the breakdown being in the spotlight leading into the match after the England camp flagged some questionable ruck entries by Australia, Borthwick praised referee Nika Amashukeli’s officiating after the match.

He said: “I thought Nika did a great job in the game, he’s an experienced ref. Out there today in difficult conditions, I thought he did really well.