England head coach Steve Borthwick admits being crushed 53-10 by France was "painful"; England's final match of the Six Nations pits them against an Ireland team playing for a Grand Slam at home but Borthwick says: "We're excited by this game. We believe in what we're trying to do"
Friday 17 March 2023 06:28, UK
After enduring a 53-10 drubbing against France last weekend at Twickenham, England go to Dublin this Saturday to face an Ireland side playing for a Grand Slam at home.
It's a daunting task but England head coach Steve Borthwick maintained it was one his side relished.
"From our point of view we're excited by this game. We believe in what we're trying to do," Borthwick said ahead of their final match of the Six Nations.
"We understand we have a lot of work to do. We knew that going into last week's game and we saw quite clearly, I was very upfront pre-game and post-game about the gap.
"We are looking forward to testing our capabilities against the No 1 side in the world in what promises to be a really exciting game on Saturday."
England have made changes to their starting team; a hamstring injury to Ollie Lawrence sees Manu Tuilagi replace him at inside centre, while David Ribbans comes in for Ollie Chessum, who is also injured, in the second row.
Borthwick has selected Henry Arundell on the wing and has now dropped fly-half Marcus Smith, with Owen Farrell returning.
"Regarding the change at 10, as always I pick a team that I think is the right team for the game we're going to play, the plan we wish to try and bring into the game and against the specific opposition," Borthwick said.
"Everybody around the team, players, coaches, every one of the management team found last week's result and performance painful. It hurts. Every one of us has worked together this week to get an improved performance on Saturday.
"We went into last week with a plan and unfortunately we weren't able to enact that plan. I think part of that was down to ourselves. Part of that was credit to a very good French team. Now we know as we go into this Saturday's game, we know we're playing against a superb team."
Borthwick believes his side is capable of rebounding, even against the championship-leading Ireland team at home.
"Clearly the performance needs to substantially improve from where it was last week and we know we're playing against the best side in the world. So what a way to test ourselves in what's going to be a fantastic atmosphere," he said.
"I think clearly Ireland are a very well organised, drilled side, have been working together for a number of seasons now so we know we're going to have to be very good in all aspects of the game to compete and get ourselves in position to win the Test match.
"Our job has been this week to keep trying to accelerate our development. We have a lot of catching up to do and we want to accelerate it.
"We're excited about this game. We know they're a very good side."
But he added: "We've got a lot of good players in our team as well."
