Steve Borthwick hints at England’s inexperience as Ireland claim bonus-point win

Steve Borthwick pointed to England’s relative inexperience as he defended recent results following a 27-22 loss to “world-class” Ireland in his side’s Guinness Six Nations opener.

Back-to-back champions Ireland increased pressure on rival head coach Borthwick after tries from Jamison Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan secured a comeback, bonus-point success in Dublin.

Borthwick’s gamble to go with a fleet-footed back row was on course to pay off at the Aviva Stadium when his side led 10-5 at the end of a largely positive first half in which Marcus Smith was sin-binned.

But, despite debutant Cadan Murley claiming an early try and late consolations from Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman, a pair of victories over Japan are England’s only successes in their last nine outings.

“If you look at today’s game, you see two different teams,” said Borthwick.

“You’ve seen an Ireland team that’s been together such a huge amount of time, nearly 1,200 caps, and you’ve seen an England team that’s been building over the last six months, with just over half that number of caps.

“If you watched that at the start of the game, you’d be saying you don’t see that difference.

“You see an England team that wants to play aggressively with the ball, wants to move the ball, and I think we took a step forward in that attack.

“We want to win every game and we didn’t today and we’re disappointed by that. But there are elements we’ll take and build that show the progress of this team over the last 10 days in the training camp.”

England, World Cup semi-finalists in 2023, lost seven of 12 Tests during a disappointing 2024.

Borthwick sprung a selection surprise on the back of an unsuccessful autumn by naming twin brothers Tom and Ben Curry either side of Ben Earl in a mobile back row.

Ireland were subsequently stifled for large periods before decisively taking control of the contest in the third quarter, prior to Tom Curry and Freeman securing a losing bonus point for England ahead of next weekend’s crunch Twickenham clash against France.

“From the messages I’ve already received, you’ve seen a team that is starting to really develop how we want to move the ball, really develop how we want to attack, and you saw a team that worked exceptionally hard for each other,” said Borthwick.

“Ireland are a world-class team and have been world-class for so long.

“Ultimately, that experience told in the third quarter, where I thought tactically they played really well. That allowed them to get the scoreboard pressure that we wouldn’t claw back.”

Ireland celebrated success in Simon Easterby’s first match as interim head coach to launch their quest for an unprecedented third consecutive title.

Fly-half rivals Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley kicked three and four points respectively to add to the hosts’ four tries, while Smith slotted seven points for England.

“The first half, it’s first round of the Six Nations, England here in Dublin, it’s always going to be a bit of an arm wrestle. It’s nothing we didn’t expect,” said Easterby.

“We had to find a way. It wasn’t perfect and we’ll need to get better but yeah, really pleased we got off to the start we got off to and it’s important that we kick on.”

Regular boss Andy Farrell, who is preparing to lead the British and Irish Lions’ summer tour of Australia, watched the match from the stands.

“We haven’t seen him afterwards yet, but I’m sure we’ll catch up with him later,” said Easterby.

“He’s been a great support, to be honest, and he’ll continue to do that along with the role he has now with the Lions.”