The turning point for this campaign – maybe for Borthwick's tenure, too – came in the aftermath of the
error strewn defeat by Scotland. The squad promised "unbelievably honest" conversations when they gathered in York for the second fallow week and it is understood that some senior players, even some of Borthwick's staff, challenged him to allow more time to be spent working on attack in training. You could see the absence of it in the clunkiness at Murrayfield, the handling errors, the unfamiliarity and the lack of cohesion in what England were doing.
The focus up to that point had been to drill into the players Felix Jones's new defensive system but for the two-week buildup to facing Ireland the attack was polished and the results were evident at Twickenham. Against France, having withstood a first-half onslaught, it was similarly electric as they fought back from 16-3 down.
"Our mindset since Scotland has been to really go at teams with ball in hand," the fly‑half George Ford said. "Be a threat, ask questions, fire shots, be that attacking team, be on the front foot a lot more. I think you've seen that the last two weeks. We had to front up after that [Scotland] game. We had to make a choice. It was off the back of that game when we had to have a few honest conversations about things and decide what team we want to be."
