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Freddie Steward insists the players and not Steve Borthwick are at fault for the autumn washout that has piled pressure on England’s head coach.
Steward believes Borthwick has been “let down” by his team after South Africa clinched a 29-20 victory on Saturday, completing a clean sweep of defeats by the southern hemisphere giants after New Zealand and Australia also stormed Allianz Stadium this month.
Borthwick has revealed there will changes for the climax to the series against Eddie Jones’ Japan on Sunday, among them the return of Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso from concussion.
Japan, ranked 14th in the world, are expected to end England’s five-Test losing run that has left Borthwick facing questions over his future. Steward believes it is the players who should be held responsible.
“We almost let Steve down. I don’t think the fault should go to him at all. The fault probably lies in our hands,” the Leicester full-back said.
“As players we had a gameplan that put us in position to win that game. We’ve got to look at ourselves as to why we didn’t pull away at the end and go back ahead.
“Steve is an unbelievable coach. He has a great rugby brain, is an unbelievable motivator and man manager. As players we believe in everything he’s bringing to this team.”
England led 20-19 until Handre Pollard landed a long range penalty in the 59th minute but their challenge fell away in the final quarter due to a high error count and indiscipline.
“Steve’s honestly been fantastic. I’ve rarely seen a coach who has as much devotion as him. We need to do better by him. We need to finish off these games,” lock Maro Itoje said.
“The staff have been brilliant throughout this campaign. We’ve got one more week to go. It’s on us as players and leaders to take responsibility and turn this thing around.
“I feel there are certain areas where we have improved. But ultimately we haven’t got the results. We are in a results business.”
England lost in the dying moments against New Zealand and Australia before fading against the Springboks. Borthwick believes his players were undercooked entering the campaign.
“We have played against a series of very good teams that have come off the back of the Rugby Championship, so they are Test match hardened,” Borthwick said.
“At the start of this series, you looked at the condition of the players and it wasn’t quite where it needed to be for teams stepping straight into Test match rugby.
“These young players can be a top Test rugby side. These young players have only played a handful of Test matches.
“They’ve gone against the double world champions when some had never played against South Africa before and they’ll take belief that they can compete against the best in the world.
“But what we have to do is make sure that belief turns into winning. That’s the biggest thing we have to do.”
