England need to be more consistent

THOSE who believe England have turned a big corner following their last-minute fireworks against France are optimists, simply because their record so far under head coach Steve Borthwick suggests there will be more boom-and-bust.

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However Bill Beaumont, the RFU interim chairman, took the optimistic route when he offered this opinion as his struggling Roadshow faced another disgruntled audience in Yorkshire this week: "One thing that does help is what happened at six o'clock on Saturday night at Twickenham." The question that Beaumont and others will be pondering is whether the feelgood factor will be the same this Saturday evening after a Calcutta Cup match that has become the seminal test of this Six Nations tournament for both England and Scotland, who each have a win and a loss on the ledger.

Whatever the outcome, it will not be an immediate fix for England's chronic international underperformance since 2003, including their flat-lining since Eddie Jones was unwisely retained by RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney after the 2019 World Cup, and then replaced by his long-time assistant, Borthwick.

It was notable that there was no hint of a triumphal tone in Borthwick's post-France comments, where he focused instead on England being "a team that is growing".

Borthwick has every reason to be wary of his squad getting ahead of itself, because England's hallmark since he took over two years ago has been rampant inconsistency. His caution is well-founded because the failure to hit the standards that he, and all England supporters, aspire to, stares at him every time he looks at his 50 per cent Red Rose coaching record, which stands currently at played 30, won 15, lost 15.