Steve Borthwick’s England channel their rage to resemble finished article | Andy Bull

With his team rampant in their demolition of Australia, the head coach’s work seems to be paying dividends So this is what they have been building behind Twickenham’s big black gates. After all these weeks in which England have seemed to always be a work in progress, Steve Borthwick finally wheeled out something that felt like a finished version of his team. No excuses, no apologies, no explanations, no talk about how young and inexperienced they are, no assurances that they are going to take the learnings. It was enthralling for their supporters and an ugly, bloody sight for the rest of the world. They were arrogant, imposing, and excellent. For everyone else, you guess, they are going to be hard to like and hell to play against. It was a record victory, and a blue‑riband result against an Australian team who only recently beat the Springboks , and who are surely a lot better than England allowed them to be here. And if there were still plenty of little errors in the first 40 minutes – a couple of silly scrum penalties, a couple of shonky lineout throws to straighten up – it still added up to one of England’s better games since Borthwick took over as head coach; their best, for sure, since they beat New Zealand here this time last year. Heck, Borthwick even managed to crack a smile when it was all over. Continue reading...