ENGLAND HEAD COACH STEVE BORTHWICK HAS PRAISED the work Andy Farrell has done with the Irish rugby team, but also added that England would do everything to emulate the same levels that Ireland have shown over the last 18 months.
Ireland and France played out one of the best international rugby test matches ever on Saturday, according to fans and pundits.
Ireland, who are the number one ranked side in the world won 32-19 in the Aviva and to the scary thing for the rest of the world there's a belief that Ireland can get better going forward.
England on the other hand have stumbled and fumbled over the same period. They are now in a transition period after sacking Eddie Jones earlier this year.
Borthwick, who took over from Jones lost his first England game against Scotland in the opening game but bounced back with a 31-14 win over Italy on Sunday.
The former Leicester head coach speaking after the game admitted that England needed to improve immensely if they were match the likes of Ireland or France in the future
“It was an incredible Test match. The standard of those teams is phenomenal,” he claimed.
Steve Borthwick: ‘We are behind Ireland and France’ https://t.co/oFCVhoBAvK pic.twitter.com/EvfHNz2dxV
— Irish Times Sport (@IrishTimesSport) February 13, 2023
“If you can use this four-year cycle really well, you should be in a good situation right now and they are. If you look at them, they are strong. We are a bit behind them.
“I can’t tell you how much, but we are behind them. I can’t do anything about where they are, but we are going to work really hard to catch up as fast as we can.”
“We are going to do the best we can to be as good as we can be. This is a process of a rebuild,” he went to add.
“I get the sense that people recognise this is a rebuild, I get a sense they recognise there is plenty to do here, and we need to build some strengths here.
“The players have come through a tough time, and I am asking them to do things in a different way and go out on the field and bring their strengths.
England's final game of this year's Six Nations will be against Ireland in Dublin on March 18.