The Albany Gazette - Borthwick urges England to be a 'better team' against France in Six Nations

England, fresh from a poor November campaign, posed Ireland some problems before going down 27-22 in Dublin -- their seventh defeat in nine Tests against all opponents.

All England have to show for their efforts since denying double-defending Six Nations kings Ireland a Grand Slam last year are two wins over Japan.

And for all they have pushed the likes of New Zealand and Australia close, there is a sense that England are proving to be less than the sum of their parts.

England have not finished higher than third since they last won the Six Nations in 2020 and they have a tough start to this year's championship, with home games against France -- who thrashed Wales 43-0 on Friday -- and Scotland next up for Borthwick's men.

"Ultimately we came up short, and I'm really disappointed we came up short because I thought we could win this game," England coach Borthwick said of Saturday's loss at Lansdowne Road.

"Our players gave that a good go, you certainly saw a belief in the players that they could come here and win the game."

The former England captain added: "We didn't so we'll ensure that we're a better team next week against France back at Twickenham.

"Immense credit to Ireland, it was a tough Test match and in that third quarter they did really well. That was probably the critical period.

"I'm very proud of the way the players attacked the game in the first half and in the final quarter the way they came back and ultimately scored a couple of tries to get us the bonus point."

England led 10-5 at half-time against Ireland, with Borthwick initially rewarded for selecting twins Tom and Ben Curry alongside Ben Earl in a dynamic back row.

But Ireland, who failed to make the most of their first-half dominance against an England team temporarily reduced to 14 men when fly-half Marcus Smith was sin-binned, hit back through tries from Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan.

At one stage, Ireland led 27-10 with consolation England tries from Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman, which followed debutant Cadan Murley's early score, narrowing the gap but coming too late to alter the outcome.

The result meant a loss for Maro Itoje in his first Test since the lock succeeded Jamie George as England captain.

"Our role is to learn from it and build and get better," said Itoje. "There were large parts of our game which I think we took a step forward.

"The energy we had on the field, the vibrancy to our attack, and the way the guys were attacking and flooding through holes I thought was very admirable.

"We're proud of the way the boys fought to the very end. We fought to get the losing bonus point and that's definitely admirable. But, of course, there are things for us to learn and get better at."

(P.Davis--TAG)