Borthwick reacts to England's win against Samoa
England head coach Steve Borthwick reacts to England's 18-17 victory over Samoa in Lille.
Ollie Chessum and Danny Care crossed for England as they clinched an 18-17 victory over a spirited Samoa outfit, who led on the scoreboard for a large period of the contest.
Owen Farrell kicked eight points to become England's top points scorer, overtaking Jonny Wilkinson's tally of 1,179.
On the match:
"My first thoughts are what a performance for Samoa, I thought they were absolutely incredible today, put us under enormous pressure, that is a huge credit to them. For us it was scrappy, we made a lot of errors and there were periods where we didn't play within our system. That put us under an awful lot of pressure. There are some huge learnings and it was a tough test."
On what they learned:
"Ultimately, if you turn over the number of balls that we did in that first half it makes it very difficult, especially against a team with the attacking power of Samoa so we know that is a big learning for us. Another aspect is the players found a way to win. It was not pretty, it was not the performance we wanted but you saw a determined group of players finding a way to navigate being behind on the scoreboard and then finding a way to get the result at the end."
On Farrell's record:
"What a player he is. I know everyone is going to talk about kicking the points but what a phenomenal player and leader. He was integral today leading this team through a very difficult [game] through a performance that was very scrappy to get a win. A great player and leader."
