Owen Farrell admits England’s gamers are reeling from the character of their Guinness Six Nations capitulation to France that has engulfed Twickenham in disaster.
England have been overrun 53-10 of their largest dwelling defeat of all time and third heaviest loss at any venue, shattering the optimism that accompanied the beginning of Steve Borthwick’s reign as head coach.
Worryingly for Borthwick, his group have been pulverised in touch because the gravest of a bunch of failings on a day that can rank among the many worst within the nation’s 152-year rugby historical past.
Many followers streamed out of Twickenham lengthy earlier than the ultimate whistle whereas others booed in response to seeing England register their eighth defeat of their final 16 Tests, a run that features one draw.
“As an England player you never expect to be in this situation,” mentioned Farrell, the pink rose captain who changed Henry Slade within the forty sixth minute. “I don’t think you ever expect to lose like that at home as an England team. You don’t expect to lose like that anywhere as an England team.
“The result and the scoreline are hugely disappointing for us. It’s never nice. Most of the people in the changing room have been through it at some stage. Not normally with England – definitely not normally with England. I’m gutted. Everybody in the changing room is disappointed to lose in the fashion that we did.”
Farrell’s demotion to the bench to accommodate Marcus Smith at fly-half dominated the build-up to ‘Le Crunch’ with the swashbuckling Harlequins ringmaster picked with the purpose of exposing France’s perceived mobility deficit within the forwards.
But energy took centre stage as England have been bullied within the contact space all through, rendering the id of their quantity 10 irrelevant because the irresistible World Cup hosts plundered seven tries, a few of them artistic endeavors.
“When you end up behind on the scoreboard and you’re chasing, sometimes things turn out like that,” Farrell mentioned. “I’m not sure it’s a true reflection of our team but credit to France for the way they played, they were clinical. They got away early on and it was hard for us to get back into the game.”
I don’t suppose you ever anticipate to lose like that at dwelling as an England group. You don’t anticipate to lose like that wherever as an England group
Owen Farrell
For England it’s a case of out of the frying pan and into the fireplace as having been scattered throughout Twickenham by the facet rated quantity two on the earth, they need to journey to Dublin to fulfill rankings kingpins Ireland.
Another Six Nations consisting of simply two wins beckons and Borthwick faces the duty of selecting his gamers up off the canvas for the hardest project in worldwide rugby.
“The end goal is not any different for us because we’ve got to improve and we knew that before this game. We definitely know it after. We have to improve together,” Farrell mentioned. “We think we can be a lot better. This will make us have a good look at ourselves and I imagine that after this everybody is champing at the bit to get going again.”
