Borthwick: We’ll learn from pain
NEW head coach Steve Borthwick admitted his England team will have to go through some pain to develop after they lost 29-23 to Scotland at Twickenham yesterday.
“This is part of the growth of the team,” he said. “We got ourselves in a position where we should have won the Test match in the second half. At 2012 up, we shouldn’t be letting that game get away from us. You have to go through some pain. Really good teams don’t let the opposition back in. We need to become a really good team.
“We tried a new defensive system and that will take work and time to get right. There are going to be mistakes when you are trying to build a team and implement new systems. I am disappointed for the supporters who were tremendous today. We must come back here in eight days time against Italy and I am sure the supporters will see a much better England team.”
South African wing Duhan van der Merwe, who scored one of the best tries ever seen in the Calcutta Cup in the first half and then helped seal Scotland’s victory when he went over again late in the second half, said: “As a wing you don’t get many opportunities and when you do you have to take them. Fortunately, I did that. We have to take confidence from this win into our next game against Wales at Murrayfield.”
England captain Owen Farrell said: “We are at the start of our journey and there were always going to be some errors. We feel there has been some growth over the last 11 days together. There were blips even though we had good control for large parts of the game and good energy. We played some good attacking rugby, got on the front foot and caused them problems.
“We need to have a
good look at what we did not do as well as we could. Regardless of the result, we were always going to get better as the Championship continued. We certainly have plenty of things to get better at.”
A delighted Scotland boss Gregor Townsend said: “I felt a lot of emotion at the final whistle. Two years ago there was no crowd. This time it was a fantastic atmosphere and we celebrated our win in the dressing room, It’s huge to win your first game as it’s all about momentum, We will enjoy having the trophy back in Scotland for another year. But we have to back it up against Wales.”
The performance of Max Malins, back in the England team on the wing and scoring two tries, was one of the plus points for Borthwick. Malins said: “We came out of blocks fast and showed great fight but there were a few thunderbolt moments where we let them off the hook and ultimately paid the price for it. We want to play quick. The quicker you get that ball, the less time the defence has the chance to get set itself. So it’s certainly something under attack we want to keep on keep on improving. We’ve come off worse today but we’re not far from getting things right.”
Borthwick added: “I was pleased for Max (Malins) to get his tries. People like him, Ollie Hassell-Collins and others came in and gave strong performances.”
England were let down by poor tackling and average kicking from hand, and could not contain Man of the Match van der Merve. The wing helped give Townsend’s side a fine start to the tournament while Borthwick and his new coaching regime will be mostly concerned about conceding four tries at HQ.
Ellis Genge crossed for England’s other try while Huw Jones grabbed Scotland’s opening effort as Borthwick’s decision to make wholesale changes to the starting line-out which lost the final November clash to South Africa failed to provide the much-needed win.