England’s Six Nations in tatters after humiliation by Ireland at Twickenham

Jamison Gibson-Park and Josh van der Flier back were also back to their best, having both been dropped for the victory over Italy.

In stark contrast, England appear to have dropped off alarmingly. There was no direction, their play was littered with errors, indecision, ill-discipline and their line-out fell apart to such an extent in the first half that Luke Cowan-Dickie had to be withdrawn, while Freddie Steward was also hooked before the interval.

There were pockets of resistance, where England managed to generate some momentum thanks to Ollie Lawrence and some running by Henry Pollock – otherwise largely ineffective at No 8 – and Marcus Smith, but there were never in the game, and the stadium knew it, with the atmosphere reduced to chatter and ironic jeers.

While Ireland look to the future, with home games against Wales and Scotland to come, Borthwick faces many questions of his own now.

Match details
Scoring sequence: 0-3, Crowley pen; 0-8, Gibson-Park try, 0-10, Crowley con; 0-15, Baloucoune try; 0-20, O’Brien try, 0-22, Crowley con; 5-22, Dingwall try, 7-22, Ford con; 7-27, Sheehan try, 7-29, Crowley con; 12-29, Lawrence try, 14-29, Ford con; 14-32, Crowley pen, 14-35, Crowley pen; 14-40, Osborne try, 14-42, Crowley con; 19-42, Underhill try.

England: F Steward (M Smith 39); T Freeman, O Lawrence, F Dingwall, H Arundell; G Ford, A Mitchell (J van Poortvliet 25); E Genge (B Rodd 51), L Cowan-Dickie (J George 29), J Heyes (T Davison 72), Maro Itoje, O Chessum, T Curry (G Pepper 51), B Earl (S Underhill 70), H Pollock.

Yellow cards: Steward, Pollock

Ireland: J Osborne; R Baloucoune, G Ringrose (C Frawley 54), S McCloskey, J Lowe (T O’Brien 18); J Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park; J Loughman (T O’Toole 47), D Sheehan (R Kelleher 55), T Furlong (F Bealham 46), J Ryan, J McCarthy (C Prendergast 62), T Beirne, J van der Flier (N Timoney 49) , C Doris.

Yellow card: J Osborne.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)