This has been an excruciatingly difficult week for Steve Borthwick’s players, booed off the pitch after a record defeat by France, and I know how they feel. England’s previous worst result at Twickenham was the 42-6 beating by the Springboks in 2008. Watching from the stand, five years on from lifting the World Cup, was manager Martin Johnson, and the dressing room was a desolate place to be after that game.
It was a dark day for me too, as I was on the left wing, and for the England captain, a certain Borthwick. But then, as now, there was some consolation as we could get the defeat, in what was an autumn international, out of our systems. The pity for us was that it was the All Blacks who were coming to Twickenham the next weekend. We were beaten again but it was an improved display – it could hardly have been worse – and for England on Saturday the challenge is similarly formidable.
