Borthwick searching for answers after 'painful' Springbok rout
REACTION: England head coach Steve Borthwick admitted he found it painful to watch his side slump to a 21-45 defeat to the Springboks in the Nations Championship opener at Ellis Park on Saturday.
England, who were outplayed from the get-go, struggled to keep pace with the Boks’ tempo and physicality for the majority of the match.
They were outscored by seven tries to three and, in the process, suffered their fifth defeat in six outings against South Africa.
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The loss also stretched England’s winless run to five matches, with their last win coming against Wales in the opening round of the Six Nations in February.
Steve Borthwick’s men were 0-17 down after 12 minutes but showed character late in the first half to claw their way back into the game.
Tries from Ellis Genge and George Martin saw England trail just 14-17 at the break.
It’s in the second stanza where they were blown away and managed just a solitary try by Alex Coles.
The Boks, meanwhile, executed their game plan well, suffocated England at the breakdown, and dominated the aerial battle, an area Borthwick pointed out after the match.
“There were a couple of critical contest episodes, and one of them was clearly in the air where South Africa did very well with their contestable kicking,” Borthwick said.
“They won a huge number of them, and it created an opportunity for them. You’ve got to credit South Africa with that; they do it very well.
“They put us under pressure, and once they get into the 22, they are very hard to stop.”
Discipline also cost England heavily in the second half.
Centre Tommy Freeman was shown his marching orders in the 71st minute for a high tackle, while Guy Pepper joined him in the sin bin a minute later for cynical play.
The two cards underlined England’s discipline problems, taking their tally to 10 yellow cards this calendar year.
“If you look at the Tommy Freeman one, it was one where he’d want to lower his height,” Borthwick explained.
“Unfortunately, we see those slight timing errors. I don’t regard Tommy Freeman as trying to do anything malicious or reckless there; he was trying to make the tackle, and he was apologetic for tackling high.
“The Guy Pepper one, I think South Africa put players under pressure because that’s the way they play. So, then you want execution to be at an incredible high level, you want decision-making to be at a high level.
“The young players will learn from this experience of playing against the best in the world.”
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England now turn their attention to Fiji next week in Liverpool, before facing Argentina later this month.
Borthwick said his side must build on the encouraging spell they produced after a poor start against the Springboks.
“All the coaches and players, we’ll be working very hard this coming week to play the periods of rugby we played when we were 17-0 down after 12 minutes.
“Led by Jamie [George], the way the players played was tough, and they worked so very hard for huge parts of that game.
“We came here and scored three tries, another disallowed; those are the bits we want to extend, and those are the bits we want to play for 80 minutes.
“Playing against the best team in the world, it doesn’t get much tougher than that. That was a painful experience.”
Borthwick will also have to do without the services of fullback George Furbank, who was ruled out of the match on Saturday morning.
Furbank suffered from abdominal pain and was taken to hospital on Friday evening. He underwent surgery the following morning and will miss England’s next two matches.
