England coach Steve Borthwick was generous in his praise of Ireland after losing 27-22 in the opening match of the Six Nations in Dublin. Borthwick pointed to an England team, who has been together a relatively short time but hailed Ireland as “world class” as they took another step towards trying to win three championships in a row, which has never been done.
“Be clear we want to win every game and we’re disappointed in that,” said Borthwick. “Ireland are a world class team that’s been world class for so long. You guys know how long Ireland have been in the top four, [they’ve] been in the top rankings in the world so long.”
Borthwick pointed to the third quarter of the match as pivotal. After a high-tempo first half, which England led, Ireland came surging back and began to move the scoreboard and take the lead.
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“That experience told in the third quarter where tactically they played really well,” said Borthwick. “That allowed them to get scoreboard pressure, which we couldn’t claw back.”
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The England coach also pointed to Ireland’s experience.
“I think ... immense credit to Ireland,” he said. “Such an experienced team, it was a tough Test match. In that third quarter I thought they did really well. They won two kick exchanges, which got them field position and opportunity and a couple of penalties that we conceded, which gave them field position and opportunity.
“If you look at today’s game you’d see two different teams. You’d see and Ireland team with 1,200 caps and you see an England team building up over the last six months with just over half that number of caps. I think if you said that at the start of the game you’d say you wouldn’t see that difference. You’d see an England team that wants to play aggressively, wants to move the ball.
“That was a critical period [third quarter]. That gave scoreboard pressure and then ... I’d say a huge congratulations to Ireland and respect to them for that performance. Also, I’m very proud of the way the players – one, attacked the game in the first half, and two in the final quarter in the way they came back and scored a couple of tries to get us the bonus point.”
Maro Itoje, the England captain was stoic in defeat and highlighted the section of the match in which England were dominant, stretches in the first half and at the end of the match where they ran in tries to close the distance between the scores.
“The first half was very good. In the second half we didn’t quite execute the game plan in terms of field position and territory, but I’m proud of the way the boys fought at the very end. They fought to get the losing bonus point at the end and that’s definitely admirable.
