England suffered their first-ever loss to Italy as the two clashed in the Six Nations this Saturday evening.
Steve Borthwick will now face serious questions around the future of his position as head coach of England as fans on social media have called upon the RFU to get rid of him with the World Cup looming in the background.
The English will now travel to Paris to complete their Six Nations campaign against France, with the only goal being to find some form and deny the French consecutive titles.
However, with the game in the balance but crucially with England in the lead at 18-16 with 16 minutes left to play, Maro Itoje earned a yellow card for cynically slapping the ball down from a maul, which reduced the English to 13 men briefly as Sam Underhill was also serving a booking.
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The English captain is experienced enough to know that this was always going to be the result from this action, and it gave Italy a numerical advantage until late on in the game.
Italy capitalised, and they took the lead with Itoje in the sin bin as they created a beautiful move late on to allow Leonardo Marin to touch down, while Paolo Garbissi added the conversion, and that was the game.
Former British and Irish Lion Austin Healey was incredibly scathing of this decision by Itoje that led to his yellow card and ultimately contributed to this historic win for the Italians.
He took to social media and said: “Sorry that’s unforgivable from your captain.”
Itoje was quick to assume responsibility for his poor performance and that of the England team while speaking to ITV.
He said: “Look, it’s obviously disappointing.”
“It’s on us as players. We have to wear the performance. This team over the last year have put some good performances together; of recent, we haven’t. We have to face the facts and face reality and get back to work.
“We obviously have to figure that out. If we knew, we probably wouldn’t be in this position. Teams go through tough periods, and we are going through a tough period now. As players, we take responsibility for that.
“We just have to own the result. We are in a results-based business, and the result wasn’t good enough. As players, and as captain, I take responsibility for that.”
The performance from Itoje and the rest of the England team has been below par in this Six Nations campaign, which has led to questions around Borthwick’s future.
However, questions have started to be asked about the quality of the squad, including Itoje, who would admit he has struggled in recent weeks.
There will be hope from fans that England can rediscover their pre-Six Nations form to earn a win over France next weekend, and to do this, they will need a big performance from their captain, Itoje.
Topics: Rugby Union
Brendan McGilligan