LONDON : If anyone was expecting Steve Borthwick to offer an apology for relying almost entirely on the rolling maul to beat Italy on Sunday they do not know the England coach, who was really pleased with the progress shown in the 31-14 Twickenham victory.
England scored five tries, four of them effectively on the back of a lineout drive, with Henry Arundell’s late score a rare moment of enterprise from the backline.
After last week’s defeat by Scotland and Borthwick’s claim that England weren’t very good at anything, beating a team who came so close to beating France last week was vital.
“We are trying to rebuild this team and we took some positive steps today,” he said. “I’ve asked the players to embrace a different way of doing things.
“This was an Italian team who we saw last week are tremendously dangerous in space – they had the quickest ruck speed of the Six Nations last week. We couldn’t let them do that. The maul was successful today, but that doesn’t mean we’ll use the maul in two weeks.”
Borthwick was aware that England’s performance paled in comparison with the scintillating action on show in Saturday’s double bill but said comparisons were pointless two games into his tenure.
“They were high quality games but these teams have been preparing for this, they’re mostly in the final year of a four-year plan, just putting the finishing touches and pretty much know their selections,” he said.
“We’re not in that situation so the way we train, the way we prepare off field is to maximise every minute we possibly can, because we have to.”
Having surged to a 19-0 halftime lead England allowed Italy back into the game, briefly closing to 26-14, echoing last week when they squandered an eight-point lead against Scotland.
MORE AMBITION
It was partly a result of Italy throwing caution to the wind and moving the ball around with more ambition but also a reminder that England, whose defence was much improved from last week, need to relearn the art of closing a game out.
“We conceded some opportunities late in the game and will have a look why,” Borthwick said. “Two weeks running now we’ve been in a winning position late in the game and there’s been a slip. We need to make sure we are better for the next game.
“But you also have to give Italy incredible credit. They slowed us down, that’s why our ruck speed wasn’t good enough, and they are an incredibly dangerous team.”
Borthwick sidestepped a question about whether he was happy with his decision to move Owen Farrell back to flyhalf and leave Marcus Smith on the bench, focusing on the performance of recalled inside centre and man of the match Ollie Lawrence.
“I asked him to play with the strengths he’s shown week in week out for Bath and he showed that today and did the job we needed within the game plan,” Borthwick said.
England travel to Cardiff in two weeks to face a Welsh side struggling after two defeats, not that captain Farrell is expecting anything but another stiff test.
“We’ve taken a pleasing step and as soon as we meet up we’ll be looking to take another,” he said. “We’ll see where we can improve because I’ve never played an easy game in Wales.”
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