Rugby World Cup: Borthwick reviews England's win over Samoa
England head coach Steve Borthwick hit out at England’s detractors after the narrow Rugby World Cup triumph over Samoa. The Lions won 18-17 in a close encounter, just about sealing victory thanks to Danny Care’s late try.
After three defeats in four preparatory matches before the tournament, many felt that England would not go far in France. There were questions over Borthwick’s tactics, some of which still prevail, but the England boss has earned the time to iron out some of his side’s weaknesses.
England remain unbeaten at the World Cup and topped Pool D, beating Argentina, Japan, Chile and Samoa. Borthwick has hit back at his side’s critics after squeezing past Samoa on Saturday evening.
“I said all the way through that the team will be ready for September 9 and the team was ready for September 9 and has continued to build,” Borthwick said.
“There have been many times where these players have been written off quite badly. Ultimately there were many people who said this team would not get out of the group stages and the team has progressed.
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“The character of these men is outstanding and they follow this man next to me, who is an example. The big players perform on the big stages and they’re all looking forward to next Sunday in Marseille.”
He added: “We’re trying to expedite things very fast here. We’ve had the coaching team together for this World Cup preparation period.
“We have combinations we want to play and work together. There are some combinations we haven’t been able to run very much recently.
“We are learning from every minute of every game and every minute of training because that’s what we need to do. The performance is not what we wanted today, you’ve seen an England team that’s worked to improve consistently.”
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Meanwhile, Owen Farrell has owned up for a bizarre error that saw his penalty ruled out. The England captain’s kick was chalked off as he failed to strike his effort within the 60-second timeframe.
“I didn’t see the clock, I wasn’t aware,” Farrell admitted. “It was above where I was picking my target. I got lost a little bit in the kick.
“It wasn’t good enough and I’m glad for the team’s sake that it didn’t cost us. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again. A big credit to Samoa and how they came out firing. They put us under pressure at times.
“There will be loads of stuff that we can do better than that, which we’ll watch over. I’m glad with the fight that we showed towards the end, with finding the try and scrambling back so that Samoa did not score, too.”
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