George Ford pinpoints glaring area of improvement for England after loss

England head coach Steve Borthwick has said that the performance against France XV at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday was “ultimately a positive for the development of this young group,” despite a 26-24 defeat.

Both Borthwick and one of his co-captains, George Ford, have lamented their side’s first and final 10-minute spells, which allowed France to race to a 12-0 lead, and then close a 12-point deficit to snatch victory at the end.

With a team that had five uncapped players in the matchday squad, not to mention a host of British and Irish Lions players missing (France were bereft of their players still competing in the Top 14 too), Borthwick believes he has plenty of positives to take from the match ahead of a two-Test series with Argentina.

“I think the response after the first couple of scores against us,” he said when singling out the pros post-match. “The response then to get back control of the game, I think tactically then for about 55, 60 minutes the team were very good and we looked very dangerous.

“If you look at our 22 entries, the tries we came away with, the penalties the opposition conceded close to their own goal line told us there is a lot of good in our game. So that was a really pleasing aspect to it.”

Ford agreed that there were “quite a few positives” from the display, particularly “how we can learn the lessons of how small margins at the back end of a game can decide a Test match.”

With that said, he was quick to point out the “biggest work-on” for his side, which is their discipline.

A slew of penalties in the opening quarter of the match gifted France field position, which allowed them to amass their points. England appeared to have ironed out that shortcoming during the match, save for a red card to Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, but ill discipline crept back into their performance as France chased the game late on.

Though France actually conceded one more penalty than England’s 10, double figures in the penalty count is seldom conducive to a victory in Test rugby, and Ford seems all too aware of that.

“I think one of our biggest improvements is our discipline,” he said. “I think our discipline in the middle of the field allowed France entries to our 22 and they brought a pretty formidable driving maul which was difficult for us to deal with. That’s probably our biggest work-on.”