If Borthwick is not up to it we must get someone else

England’s scrummaging was one of our greatest assets – now we look lost in that department

There are problems for the denigrators of and advocates for England. A poor, over-the-hill side would not have created two high-tempo tries like they did in the opening 13 minutes of the second Test against South Africa. On the other hand, a top outfit would not have conceded a pushover penalty try, failed to drive mauls properly and failed to score a single point in the next 67 minutes. It is all very perplexing.

I am not that bothered about the accusations of boorishness post-match. I know that Boks’ fans can be confrontational after games and, at least, it shows the England players are hurt by their failure. I have a similar view of Ben Youngs’s termination of his interview.

More worrying is Eddie Jones’s reference to the number of injured players he has and his general irritability to quite normal lines of questioning. This defensiveness hints at pressure being felt and the acknowledgement that criticisms have some foundation.

With the series against the Boks lost, there will be a desperation not to be whitewashed, but what will a scraped win against already celebrating opposition prove? If anything is to be salvaged from this tour it means taking the opportunity to be radical; what have they got to lose? Jones has shown admirable loyalty to some players, but he now has to ask himself, can England win a World Cup with a number of his seemingly automatic choices in situ?

George Ford is a fine front-foot player, possibly the equal of the world’s best. But when England do not get on top, even in part, Ford has not shown a consistent ability to bring his side back into the match or be effective on the back foot. The standard of his tactical kicking is variable and, in defence, he is, at best, a makeweight. Why not give Danny Cipriani a full game

The pack has been a pale imitation of the eight who stood toe-to-toe with any opponents

to make his case or move England’s most influential player, Owen Farrell, to the No10 spot and fashion a better centre partnership?

In the back three, if Jones is intent on playing Mike Brown and Elliot Daly out of their club positions, he has to do this on a permanent basis from this point on, to give them time to instinctively familiarise themselves with their different tactical duties.

Whatever Jones does in the backs it is not as important as resurrecting England’s performances up front. In the past six games, the pack has been a pale imitation of the eight who stood toe-to-toe with any opponents. On Saturday, again, the lineout creaked and the scrum was a weak point. Without parity in the set-piece no side are going to mount a serious challenge over a full game, and this is even more important with England, who have traditionally relied on their forwards to control games.

Enough of experimenting with players out of position; it has not worked. If England do not possess the finished article at tighthead and openside, Jones needs to identify the Premiership’s best exponents and give them the run-up to the World Cup to develop.

The first duty of the No3 is to scrummage and Kyle Sinckler is, not yet, technically capable of dominating in that position. Don Armand might not be the equal of Michael Hooper, but everything tried as an alternative has been shown not to work. A run of starts would allow Armand time to improve and, whatever the result, an established openside with experience is going to prove a better bet than the constant experiments with players.

Outside the set, the breakdown problems are well rehearsed and are the responsibility of the whole team, not just the forwards. What can be laid squarely at the forwards’ door, and by extension their coach Steve Borthwick, is their inability to drive a maul.

Again, on Saturday, we saw England unable to perform a basic collective skill that can be perfected by rote. It is a crucial and powerful weapon, as was demonstrated by the Boks, and if Borthwick cannot teach the forwards to perfect it, England need to get someone who can.

We have seen that England, even with a lack of confidence, are still a capable team when going forward. What is paramount, though, is the restoration of the defensive solidity which was the foundation of their run of successful games when Jones arrived.

Jones’s selection of a replacement for Paul Gustard, the defence coach, and his attitude to selection in a wider sense, holds the key to England’s World Cup challenge in Japan. England are right on the edge at the moment.