The Borthwick message to England 14 days out from All Blacks game

Steve Borthwick says England are determined to turn near-misses into victories during next month’s Autumn Nations Series.

Borthwick’s men have this year lost twice to New Zealand and once to France by a combined total of 10 points and on each occasion were leading during the final quarter.

The All Blacks visit Allianz Stadium on November 2 with fixtures against Australia, South Africa and Japan to follow and Borthwick insists it is time to shed the ‘plucky losers’ tag.

“I am clear that the team needs to consistently put itself in position to win games, which we’ve done a lot better,” England’s head coach said.

“There was a period not so long ago where we weren’t competing against the top four sides in the world. Now we’re competing against them but I want to make sure we get the job finished at the end.

“We want to make sure the Allianz Stadium is a place that our players enjoy playing and that our fans enjoy coming to because they’re seeing an England team performing and an England team winning. We’re very clear about that.

“Make no mistake, I praise the players for their performances and for all their efforts because they’ve done a lot of good things, but there have also been times where we have lost games as opposed to the opposition winning them.

“We were in a winning position against New Zealand in Dunedin and we didn’t win. And then we got ourselves into a winning position in Auckland where we should have learned the lessons from the week before.

“We need to make sure we’ve learned those lessons so that they can be converted into results.”