Steve Borthwick has insisted he is well equipped to block out the pressure of England’s current plight after Rassie Erasmus suggested he is under the pump and may feel like he “has a gun against his head”.
A number of ex-England stalwarts, including Clive Woodward and Will Carling, have taken aim at Borthwick after Saturday’s last-gasp defeat by Australia extended his side’s losing run to four. He retains the Rugby Football Union’s “100% support” but England could slip to eighth in the world rankings should they fail to arrest their losing streak against Erasmus’s Springboks on Saturday in the first meeting between the sides since last year’s ill-tempered World Cup semi-final.
