Borthwick’s men went down 30-21 to lose the Calcutta Cup game for the fourth time on the spin and continue their miserable run against Gregor Townsend’s side.
England sprinted to a 10-0 lead in the first 15 minutes before the wheels came off and wing Duhan van der Merwe scored the first-ever Scottish hat-trick in the fixture.
Scotland last beat England four times in succession in the Championship in the 1890s and this was a step back for Borthwick’s side.
And the head coach reckoned the amount of possession coughed up cost his side and the unfamiliarity of the midfield of George Ford, Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade was exposed.
Borthwick said: “If you make that many handling errors at this level it is very difficult to win especially against a team of Scotland’s quality. Ultimately, we made it too easy for them to score but they were very clinical.
“A huge lesson for our team, as they develop, is that that number of turnovers make it very difficult to win. Today wasn’t good enough. You look at that first 20 minutes, the guys started well, but then our error rate went up. You can’t allow a team to score that easily.
This story is from the February 25, 2024 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the February 25, 2024 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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