‘Players should be incredibly proud’: Borthwick praises England after defeat

Steve Borthwick believes England’s World Cup heartbreak can be the making of his side after their agonising one-point semi-final defeat by South Africa. He declared his pride for his players after pushing the defending champions so close but believes the future is bright for his team despite their going out in devastating fashion.

England produced their best performance under Borthwick by some distance to lead the world No 1 side 15-9 with 12 minutes to go. A close-range try by RG Snyman and a 78th-minute penalty from Handré Pollard edged South Africa into the final, however, with England beaten by the Springboks for the second World Cup in a row.

South Africa’s “Bomb Squad” eventually proved decisive with Kyle Sinckler and Ellis Genge giving away two scrum penalties apiece but Borthwick insisted any individual disappointment would be harnessed.

“In adversity, in these tough times, there’s some seed that will grow and be brilliant in the future,” the head coach said. “Right now it’s too early for me to find that seed but we’ll make sure we find that, we’ll make sure that we grab that and it makes us stronger in the future.

“I think the whole team’s performance was strong. We’re disappointed. We came here with a plan to win the game and we fell short. We’re desperately disappointed. The players should be incredibly proud. I care about these players, these supporters and English rugby.

“What I see is a group of guys who are doing as much as they can to build a team to have supporters as proud of them as they possibly can. We all truly believed we could do it, we were going to do it but we fell short. As you look at the team, in that 23 there were seven players 25 or under. South Africa had one. There’s a great blend within this squad and there’ll be lots of things we can take forward. We put ourselves in a position but we came up short.”

South Africa are one match from successfully defending their title with New Zealand awaiting in Saturday’s final. They have won both their knockout matches to date by a single point, having edged out France 29-28 the week before. The Springboks were on the back foot for large spells but turned to their bench with Handré Pollard coming on after 31 minutes and the replacement props Ox Nché and Vincent Koch having a huge impact.

“Credit to England, they have worked hard,” said the captain, Siya Kolisi. “They were written off before the World Cup. Steve Borthwick and Owen [Farrell] and the team pulled themselves together and showed who they are. They are not a team you take lightly, all credit to them for being in the semi-final. To my team as well it was ugly like it was last week but we found a way to fight back and get back into the game.”