"Plenty of work to do" - Steve Borthwick and Maro Itoje react to humbling Ireland defeat

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Andy Farrell’s side ran in five tries in a frantic contest and left England scrambling, with four substitutions made before the 55th minute. It was the second-most points England have ever conceded at Twickenham and their fifth heaviest home defeat by points difference. The result reignited Ireland’s championship hopes and seriously dented England’s challenge.

For Steve Borthwick, it was a chastening afternoon that followed another defeat against Scotland last week.

“It was bitterly disappointing and huge credit to Ireland, they took their chances, their kicking game was excellent."

England have built a reputation for finding a way in tight matches, often responding strongly in the second half even when trailing. That resilience did not materialise here.

“This team has been very, very good for a quite a long time in games that are tight, even if we go a score or two down, being very strong in that second half and always finding a way to win that second half."

Instead, England found themselves chasing the game after failing to capitalise on early pressure inside Ireland’s 22. Ireland struck swiftly after a period in which the hosts had camped on their line without reward.

“Ultimately if you look at that first 20 minutes Ireland scored very quickly after a period of time when we were sat on their goal line and unable to score. We need to make sure that we are better in that area, when we are in that 22 we come away with points one way or another."

Borthwick admitted that England’s recent defeats have followed a concerning pattern.

“Unfortunately for two weeks now we have given ourselves a mountain to climb, given the opposition too many points and we have not got scoreboard presence. We will be looking closely at that and how I set the team up to make sure it doesn’t happen again."

The England head coach also addressed suggestions that his side are regressing after a strong run of form recently.

“Two weeks ago there was a lot of talk about us being 12 wins on the bounce and people were saying all kinds of positive things about this team and not all of them were true. Right now after two losses people will be saying other things about this team and they won’t all be true either.

"The truth is somewhere in the middle where we are a team that has got plenty of work to do, we know that, I have always said that, has lots of growth in it and ultimately in the last two weeks has played against two high quality teams and they have been better than us."

Attention inevitably turned to George Ford after a difficult afternoon, and questions about potential changes at fly-half. Borthwick resisted the urge to single out individuals.

"I think George has done so much good for England for such a long period of time and particularly over the last spell. I thought the way George played in the autumn was outstanding and I thought two weeks ago he played really well here against Wales. I think with a game and you want to talk about individuals, but it is the team - it is all of us today and it was all of us last week. We didn’t find a way to get the result we wanted and that’s all of our responsibility."

Captain Maro Itoje, winning his 100th cap before being withdrawn, also leapt to Ford’s defence when asked about jeers from the crowd.

"George is a fantastic player. He's a player I deeply admire. He's a player who's delivered for England time and time and time again and he's had a huge amount of success in his career and he will continue to have a huge amount of success in his career with this team and all the teams that he represents."