Cardiff<\/a>. So we\u2019ll give everything we got to get that win.\u201d<\/p>\n‘Something is broken’ with England as pundits expect change<\/p>\n
Former Scotland flanker John Barclay says something is broken with England if they do end the Six Nations with one victory, as both Barclay and Warburton admitted that it’s hard to defend current coach Steve Borthwick.<\/p>\n
England slipped to their third defeat of the tournament on Saturday, losing to Italy for the first time in their history. A loss in Paris to France next weekend would mark England’s worst-ever Six Nations campaign – all the more remarkable given they came into the tournament on a lengthy winning run as one of the favourites for the title.<\/p>\n
Both Warburton and Barclay chimed in on England on Rugby Special on Sunday, admitting change could be afoot despite the RFU’s vote of confidence.<\/p>\n
“I just think back to how people were talking about Gregor Townsend after round one,” said Warburton. “He was under the pump, but he’s bounced back, Scotland have won three games and people aren’t thinking about that.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never been a fan of changing the regime during a campaign. Get through the campaign. It’s unlikely but England could go to France and come up trumps.<\/p>\n
“But if they don’t and they lose four games in the Six Nations for the first time in history, it’s very hard to defend.”<\/p>\n
Barclay added: “With Gregor, I thought they had to finish with three wins or finish above third in the table. On the other side of that, if England only win one in the Six Nations, for me looking at it – with the resource players they have – it’s impossible to perceive how you don’t look at a change.<\/p>\n
“Something is broken there if that happens. You don’t go on a 12-match winning run and then win one game out of five in the Six Nations, with the quality of players they have. It’s really hard on Steve Borthwick, whether he sticks or twists with those players.”<\/p>\n
Ben Earl: I actually thought we played pretty well<\/p>\n
By Duncan Bech, Press Association Sport Rugby Union Correspondent, Rome<\/p>\n
Ben Earl has defended England\u2019s performance in their historic first loss to Italy amid mounting pressure on head coach Steve Borthwick.<\/p>\n
England are facing the prospect of their worst finish in the Guinness Six Nations after conceding 13 unanswered points at the Stadio Olimpico to crash to a 23-18 defeat.<\/p>\n
Their third successive collapse was met with a statement of support for Borthwick from the Rugby Football Union, although the backing extends only as far as this year\u2019s Nations Championship and not the 2027 World Cup when his contract ends.<\/p>\n
Earl, Borthwick\u2019s most impressive contributor for much of the last three years, believes there was plenty to admire in Rome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an element of pride really because I actually thought we played pretty well,\u201d said the Saracens number eight, who won his 50th cap on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a moment in that game I thought there was only one team that was going to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that game ended at 60 minutes you\u2019d say that was an unbelievable performance by England, but unfortunately the result didn\u2019t go our way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was honestly one of the most enjoyable games I\u2019ve played for 60 minutes. Because we had two good teams throwing punch after punch, tactical nous versus tactical nous, and we were on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse my French but there\u2019s going to be a s*** ton of noise, whatever, but Italy are a very good team. They\u2019re going to go and beat some good teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that we can\u2019t improve and we can\u2019t beat them, but I thought there were large parts of that performance that were brilliant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a performance where we brought the gameplan to life and Italy won a couple of moments in the last 20 minutes to win the game. That\u2019s Test match rugby. That\u2019s another lesson for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course at some point you say \u2018how many lessons can you take?\u2019. But, again, I keep saying I\u2019d rather learn these lessons now than in Brisbane at the 2027 World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former internationals Austin Healey and Andy Goode have called for Borthwick to be sacked but Earl believes the players should be held responsible for the recent slump.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust have a think about what this team\u2019s achieved since Steve took over. We\u2019ve gone third in the World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve won 12 out of 15 games, but had won 12 on the bounce. We\u2019ve beaten the All Blacks for the first time in Twickenham since 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe noise is actually bonkers, I think it\u2019s crazy. If anyone is letting Steve down, it\u2019s us, the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we need to play better at certain moments because we\u2019re playing well for 50 minutes, playing well for 40 minutes, playing well for 30 minutes. We\u2019ve just got to put it together \u2013 and we will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest rugby stories making headlines on Monday, March 9 Wales team huddle at half-time in the changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,4209,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-814079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-six-nations","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116198554732409163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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