From 12 straight wins to 2 heavy losses: England’s Six Nations slide accelerates

LONDON (AP) — Only a week ago, England was surfing a 12-win wave.

All of that momentum and confidence built up in 12 months has been wiped out after consecutive emphatic losses to Scotland and Ireland in the Six Nations.

Scotland ended the streak at Murrayfield last weekend and Ireland tore down Twickenham’s walls on Saturday in a record 42-21 win.

After only three rounds, England is out of the title race and coach Steve Borthwick is going to need a bigger drawing board to stop all his work unravelling in the last matches against Italy and France, both on the road next month.

At the Six Nations launch last month, Borthwick talked up the last-round match against France on March 14 as a potential title decider but now he has to be worried about what shape his side will be in when they get to Paris.

“Two weeks ago after 12 wins on the bounce, people were saying we were the best team in the world,” Borthwick told the BBC, “and now we are all sorts of things. Neither of these are true. We are on a journey of development that has a lot of growth in it. That England team from today will be a lot better in two weeks time.”

Another bad start doomed England. Scotland was 17-0 ahead after 14 minutes. Ireland was 22-0 ahead after 30.

“It was bitterly disappointing and huge credit to Ireland, they took their chances and their kicking game was excellent,” Borthwick said.

“This team has been very, very good for a quite a long time in games that are tight, even if we go a score or two down, being very strong in that second half and always finding a way to win that second half.

“Unfortunately for two weeks now we have given ourselves a mountain to climb, given the opposition too many points and we have not got scoreboard presence. We will be looking closely at that and how I set the team up to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

What was particularly dismaying for England was the role its leadership played in its own downfall.

Captain Maro Itoje, on the occasion of his 100th England test, was pulled after 54 minutes, two minutes less than he lasted against Scotland. Itoje usually plays the full 80 and is impactful. Also taken off early were scrumhalf Alex Mitchell, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and fullback Freddy Steward in the first half as Borthwick tried to stop the bleeding.

George Ford failed with two early touch-finders and received an ironic cheer when he finally found touch. Yellow cards to Steward and Henry Pollock led to 14 Ireland points.

Prop Ellis Genge apologized.

“Conceding so many points in the first 15 minutes, no one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out,” Genge told the BBC. “It opened up scar tissue from last week.

“Sorry to the fans, you have been outstanding. We have let everyone down. Apologies for that but I promise we will make it better.”

___

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby