England coach Borthwick sees blueprint despite France defeat

England ended the Six Nations with a bitter taste after a last-gasp 48-46 defeat by France but with a clearer blueprint of how they want to play, head coach Steve Borthwick said after a breathless title decider on Saturday.

Thomas Ramos’s late penalty won it at the Stade de France, condemning England to a fourth defeat of the campaign despite their most fluent attacking display of the championship.

“I’d first congratulate France on a tremendous performance today and huge congratulations to them for winning the title,” Borthwick told reporters after England lost four games for the first time in a Six Nations campaign.

“They’re an excellent side. I’m disappointed for the players and the supporters. Today the players played so very, very well and you desperately want them to leave with a win that makes it such a special day. We were so close to it being a special day.”

Borthwick insisted England had shown tangible progress in a tournament marked by heavy swings in momentum and costly lapses in discipline.

“What you’ve seen in this Six Nations is a lot of very good teams and huge ebbs and flows from week to week,” he said.

“Clearly what you do see is that as the team spends more time in camp together, the team significantly improves. When we’ve kept 15 players on the pitch, we’ve looked like a very good team.

“Unfortunately, when we’ve gone down to 14 or 13 men, we’ve been punished. Ultimately, we’re gutted. We went into the tournament with high expectations, and we’ve not been able to meet those targets.”

England conceded a penalty try late in the first half when Ellis Genge was shown a yellow card for collapsing a maul, and Borthwick questioned aspects of the officiating while acknowledging his side’s disciplinary issues.

“Our discipline needs to be better. You need to keep 15 men on the pitch,” he said. “I thought the decision for the penalty try — I don’t follow it. I’ve asked for it to be explained to me.

“The players were told on the pitch there was a penalty advantage at one stage, so they played in a certain manner knowing they had a penalty to go back to. Unfortunately, that was changed in the background to a knock-on advantage. The players were unaware and France were able to score. I think World Rugby needs to look at that situation.”

Captain Maro Itoje said England’s performance offered a template despite the pain of defeat.

“We’re disappointed with the loss,” Itoje said. “But the way we played today is how we want to play going forward.”