Fans need more from Steve Borthwick than complaints about inexperience; conviction and guile matter too

Steve Borthwick is a man of character in an age that prefers to reward personality. Try as he might to explain England’s latest collapse, to reassure supporters that a corner will be turned, it was a failure in grasping the gravitas of a seventh defeat in nine matches in a manner that is now his side’s trademark. It was left to his predecessor turned pundit, Eddie Jones, to sum up England’s plight far more adroitly in only four words when asked how he would have reacted if he were in Borthwick’s position: “I’m glad I’m not.”

It is a measure of Borthwick’s character that he chose not to turn on the referee, Ben O’Keeffe, for some questionable decisions against his team during the period in which Ireland scored 22 unanswered points. Borthwick pointed instead to his side’s indiscipline as they let a 10-5 half-time lead slip through their fingers. “That’s something that needs to be improved this week,” was about as close as he came to chastising his players for capitulating.