Borthwick's men can't afford to crash to earth after Irish lift-off

The title may prove out of reach but England still have questions to answer and a score to settle in France

- Nick Purewal

THIS time last year, Steve Borthwick's England rebuild came crashing down in a cloud of dust, France reducing Twickenham to rubble with a record 53-10 victory on English soil and heralding an alarming rut ahead of the autumn World Cup.

Step through England's surprise third place finish in France and on to another Six Nations finale, though, and tomorrow might just reveal whether great change can yield significant progress.

England are still hurt by that March 11 performance at Twickenham last year, where they lacked entirely in fight, desire, intensity and accuracy.

Head coach Borthwick levelled all those criticisms at his own squad back then, laying bare the depths to which England had sunk and the long climb required to get back to Test rugby's top table.

England lurched from that France thrashing to a humbling 30-22 first home defeat by Fiji that completed their World Cup preparations last summer.

Borthwick tightened up the approach to pull off a creditable third-place finish at the World Cup, then quickly binned that game-plan.