It only took 137 days for someone in the Red Rose group to admit the glaringly obvious.
The first England players to form a World Cup camp assembled on June 12 at Pennyhill Park, in what now feels like an eon ago.
Almost five months later in the bowels of the Stade de France, in the middle of the night after England’s 26-23 third-place play-off win over Argentina, hooker George delivered the most candid assessment yet of Steve Borthwick’s Red Rose tenure.
There was method in the head coach’s miserly public pronouncements across a high-pressure 10-month World Cup preparation period.
The former Leicester boss had to start from scratch, inheriting Eddie Jones’ bin-fire Test set-up and tasked with dousing flame after flame.
A simple gameplan was all England had time for at this World Cup, and Borthwick said as much from the start.
The ultra-measured boss has staunchly refused to drop any hint on what will come next, however, including in terms of playing style.
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