Sir Clive Woodward was left frustrated by the performance of England captain Owen Farrell against Italy at Twickenham.
The men in white earned a first win of Steve Borthwick’s tenure with a pragmatic bonus-point win over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham.
One person who was left a bit disappointed though was the World Cup-winning coach.
Speaking to ITV, an angyy Woodward said: “At halftime we were all quite pleased, it had been a workman like performance.
“In the second half, I wrote a few things down here, you’d question the ambition. There was no quick throw-ins, at the scrum penalty everyone comes running so we can’t get a quick throw-in.
“There was massive over kicking in the red zone, from 22 metres out it was just kicking, kicking, kicking.
“The substitutions, you’re trying to build a new team, so keep the 15 on the field of play. I agree with [Henry] Arundell and [Alex] Mitchell coming on, because I think those two arguably could start for England. Everyone else is definitely on the reserve list, so keep your team on the field of play.
“We lost our shape and let Italy back into the game.
“The last thing, and this really drives me nuts with all teams, is when you get into 80 minutes and the score 31-14 and you just kick the ball off the field. For me, a call should come from the captain that says ‘lets pretend we’re five points down, we have to score’.
“I’m a little bit disappointed in the second half, but if you said that score at the start, we would have been pretty pleased. It’s a big step forward, but we’ve got to go to Wales now.”
Three England changes Steve Borthwick ‘should’ make for Wales clash
With still work to do for the New England boss, we look at three changes he could make to face Wales in a fortnight’s time.
Borthwick’s men travel to Cardiff in their next game on 25 February, after next weekend’s break, as the Azzurri host world number one side Ireland earlier on the same day.
POSSIBLE ENGLAND CHANGES:
#1. Marcus Smith for Owen Farrell
RUCK 6/10: “There was a lot of kicking from the England 10 and not much of it was good; either from hand or the tee. However, his overall performance improved significantly when he played in his preferred position.”
Andy Goode wrote on Twitter: “Steve Borthwick talks relentlessly about excitement and exciting the crowd, there’s zero excitement at Twickers Borthers, get Marcus Smith on please.”