England coach Steve Borthwick to hold to an urgent inquest into how Six Nations campaign was derailed by an outbreak of ‘hot potato rugby’ against Scotland at Murrayfield

England will reconvene in York on Wednesday and hold an urgent inquest into how their Six Nations campaign was derailed by an outbreak of ‘hot potato rugby’ at Murrayfield.

Steve Borthwick’s national squad are having two uncomfortable days off before gathering in unfamiliar northern surroundings to address the chronic failures which caused a shattering 30-21 defeat by Scotland.

The head coach will demand an explanation from his players about why they deviated so far from the agreed script in Edinburgh — and Saracens lock Maro Itoje was left bewildered by that factor in their fourth successive Calcutta Cup loss.

‘We probably didn’t stick to the game-plan,’ he said. ‘We started playing tip-tap rugby. We want to be a team that plays direct and is confrontational. ‘Particularly in the second half of the first half, we didn’t do that. We started playing hot-potato rugby and that is not what we want to do.

‘I am not sure (why). I don’t have the answers right now. We need to stay disciplined in what we do and stick to the plan we want to impose. In every game, you have a plan and then the game throws challenges at you. The challenge is to impose your will even when those challenges are thrown at you. When the challenges were thrown at us, we deviated from the plan.’

Head coach Steve Borthwick will demand an explanation from his players once they return

Borthwick will want answers from his team about why they changed course — becoming more loose and erratic after playing so well in the first quarter to lead 10-0.

‘What in the thought processes altered to try and do something different, that led to that spike in the error rate, then led to giving Scotland the opportunity to score?’ he said.

England’s mantra is that they are rebuilding and it takes time, but Borthwick acknowledged that some of the handling errors were unacceptable, whatever the circumstances. ‘I share the feelings of all the supporters — that was not good enough,’ he said. 

‘No one ever goes on to the pitch wanting to make a mistake. But there were too many mistakes. I will look at our preparation and what led to that.’