England’s captain, Jamie George, has insisted his team can still challenge for the Six Nations title despite only narrowly defeating Italy on the opening weekend. George, leading his country for the first time, acknowledged the 27-24 victory fell well short of the standard of Ireland’s win in France on Friday but believes there is more to come from his squad.
“Absolutely,” he said, when asked if England could yet be in contention at the top end of this season’s table. “I don’t want anyone to be involved if they don’t genuinely believe we can challenge the best and win the tournament. Steve [Borthwick] has already talked about how fast we need to learn. We’re not going to paper over the cracks.”
