England's nine-try, 59-14 thrashing of a callow Japan on Sunday allowed Steve Borthwick to sign off a depressing Autumn Series on a high and he certainly milked the positives from the victory that ended a run of five straight defeats.
England did play some great rugby and showed variety and ambition in attack and, although there is a huge caveat over the win given the paucity of the opposition, Borthwick revelled in the chance to celebrate a victory.
England's second-half highlights in 60 seconds 🌹#ENGvJPN | #AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/R1zEEiWdgf
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) November 24, 2024
"I'm really pleased with the way the players approached the game and the way they kept being disciplined to try to play the way they wanted to play for 80 minutes," Borthwick said, well aware of how his team had fallen away in the last quarter so often this year.
"You can see the identity they're trying to build as a team. The team moves the ball, can score in different ways and some of the tries were exceptional. I think in the last four weeks, we've scored some really outstanding tries with the skill level of this group."
Captain Jamie George, who, along with his hooker replacement Luke Cowan-Dickie, scored two tries from rolling mauls, said he was also delighted with the way the players approached a game that was described by some observers as "lose-lose".
© @EnglandRugby captain Jamie George reflects on their #AutumnNationsSeries campaign#ENGvJAP pic.twitter.com/QzinSwJrZc
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) November 24, 2024
"My message to the team before the game was that I wanted to see how far we could take things, how much we could push," he said.
"Often in a week like this, with the type of opposition that we had there, a lot of the focus needed to be on us because we weren't entirely sure what to expect from an Eddie Jones Japan team. In terms of the execution of the game plan, I thought it was fantastic."
Asked to sum up the four November games that brought nail-biting defeats to New Zealand and Australia and another loss to South Africa where they fell away in the latter stages, Borthwick almost could not have sounded happier had England won all three.
"The overriding emotion is one of frustration but there was also real positivity around some of the aspects," he said. "I want the team to be brave with the ball. I want them to play fast and I think we've seen growth in that area over the last four weeks.
"I think there are different things that we can learn from each of the first three. What's really important internationally is that cohesion and the relationships among the players and I think that's developed over the last number of weeks. I think we saw more of it today. We had the attitude to play fast and get the ball to the edges and you saw how often we did that today."
"The overriding feeling will be one of frustration" 💬
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 24, 2024
England head coach Steve Borthwick assesses his side's performances in the Autumn internationals 🏴 pic.twitter.com/fV2jCqC4MS
England will reconvene in the New Year for a tough start to the Six Nations when they are away to Ireland and then at home to France.
"We are very, very hungry and have a huge appetite to learn," George said. "We've got some incredibly talented players, very smart players, and the thing that excites me the most is how far we can go with this team.
"You look at the age demographic, the cap demographic, I think it's a very, very exciting time for this team."