Borthwick needs to sort out defence

WELL surprise, surprise England at last managed to win at home in front of a nearly full Allianz stadium even if it was against a team that they had thrashed just a few months earlier.

- JEFF PROBYN

England were always going to beat Japan but it was the way in which they approached and played the game that was going to be the most important factor.

Having lost seven Test matches out of 12 and dropping two places down the world rankings to seventh in the last year, the players and the coaches needed a good display to show that they are on the right path to success.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a game that you could say tested England at any time, with Japan failing to dominate any facets of the match whether set-piece or broken field play with England only managing to capitalise on Japan’s mistakes to score nine tries. I say ‘mistakes’ but in reality it was about mismatched forwards, with Japan’s pack unable to combat power with power with a majority of England’s tries coming from the forwards scoring a number of tries from catch and drive lineouts.

Many articles have pointed out the disappointment of England’s performances since reaching the semi-final of last year’s World Cup, thinking that achievement was a sign of an improving squad and team with the replacement of Eddie Jones as head coach by Steve Borthwick.