Borthwick pinpoints where it went wrong for England
REACTION: England head coach Steve Borthwick was a ‘bitterly disappointed’ figure following his team’s 20-31 defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The loss ended England’s 12-game winning streak and marked a fourth defeat in five visits to Murrayfield for England.
The result also served as a major dent to their hopes of capping their resurgence over the past year with a first Six Nations title since 2020.
It was a very difficult outing for the England side, who conceded four tries.
Henry Arundell hit back for England in between being shown two yellow cards in the first half, which led to a 20-minute red, before a late consolation from Ben Earl.
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Borthwick admitted that the 30 minutes they were down to 14 men, in which Scotland scored three of their tries, “hurt” his side.
“Huge credit to Scotland, I thought they played really well,” he said.
“Clearly, playing such a huge part of the game without a winger against a team that was moving the ball to that edge so much, that hurt us and ultimately gave us too much to do in the second half.
“What’s typically been happening over the last period of time is we’ve slowly reeled teams in.
“When we played against New Zealand and were 12-0 down, we reeled them in gradually.”
Borthwick was of no mind to take issue with either of Arundell’s yellow cards.
“To be honest, when I’m in the game, I don’t spend any time looking back when the referee makes a decision,” he said. “I go on trying to think about how we’re going to deal with the situation.
“Henry’s disappointed, as all the players are, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”
Source: PA Sport
