DUBLIN -- Steve Borthwick has said England must fix their discipline issues after another painful defeat to Ireland in Dublin, but is adamant they will become a "very, very good team" despite losing six of their last seven Test matches.
England fell 27-22 to Ireland in their Six Nations opener on Saturday. England led 10-5 heading into the break, but shipped 22 unanswered points and found themselves 27-10 down with five minutes left.
They scored two late tries to secure a losing bonus point, but the result meant England have won just two Tests in their last nine, with both victories coming against Japan.
It was a painful start to the Six Nations for England. With France coming to Twickenham on Saturday, fresh from their 43-0 win over Wales on Friday night in Paris, Borthwick said England must find a way to solve their ill-discipline, as they conceded 11 penalties to Ireland's eight and saw Marcus Smith yellow carded in the first half.
"I think that at this level, if you concede penalties in those areas, and it's been a strength of ours in recent times, that gives the opportunity for quality teams to have access into your 22 and get field position," Borthwick said. "That's something that needs to be improved this week.
"I think second, we lost a couple of kick exchanges and they were costly. Now France, the kicking game is a different type of kicking game. Today was much more of a contestable battle, I think next week is a different factor with the way France play. Tactically, we've got to adjust and be adaptable there and then it comes down to executing in those big moments."
England opened the scoring through debutant Cadan Murley, but tries from Jamison Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan saw Ireland take an unassailable 27-10 lead that was made to look less damaging for Borthwick and co. as a result of Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman going over for consolation scores.
Borthwick pointed to the difference in experience between the two teams and afterwards and says his team must continue to forge familiarity and combinations.
"There's no doubt when you're trying to build a team, building relationships and how often people play together is important," he said. "You contrast that with Ireland and how often they play together. With Leinster, you see the model they've gone with, that consistency.
"Defensively I think there were big improvements, I think that was pretty evident throughout, there were a couple of one-on-one tackles on edges and we've got to make those tackles. If you do that then suddenly the context of the game is little bit different. There's execution in attack, execution in defence and there's execution in the kicking game and in some key moments it was a little bit off where it needs to be to win these Test matches."
France will offer a stern test at Twickenham but despite England's recent poor record, Borthwick is adamant they are making progress.
"I think this group of players is building and is going to be a very, very good team," he said. "I trust this group of players and you can see just how hard they are working for each other. I thought that was a step forward, how hard they ran, the effort, I can see a team starting to develop within this group."
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