Talking Points: Borthwick reacts to beating Japan
England head coach Steve Borthwick spoke to the media after his side recorded a bonus-point win over Japan in Nice.
Beating Japan
"The players did tremendously well to get the result. In the end the players found a way. In these conditions it's challenging. The players found a way of scoring four tries. We felt that last quarter was where we needed to accelerate and the boys did that.
"Japan played what I thought was incredibly smart and unorthodox rugby. The use of the attacking kick, kicks over the ruck, kicks behind the defensive line, I've not seen Japan use it to that extent and I thought they did that tremendously well.
"There were a couple of bounces of the ball that we had to fight very hard for. It's a very good Japanese team, they are clearly very well coached."
Next up
"The next step for the players is to enjoy this win because they worked hard for it - and the supporters will enjoy the win. We play Chile in six days' time so we'll recover, get a great plan and we'll look forward to playing them.
"We build towards Chile next Saturday. I expect there to be another huge English contingent in the crowd. Those supporters out there were outstanding. We are very fortunate to have them."
Development
"You've seen strides in some of the fundamental aspects of the game. You've seen growth in our attack. It's always the way that you build the fundamentals through defence, your kicking game, your set-piece and your breakdown, and the attack always takes the longest to come because it takes cohesion.
"Some coaching teams have had eight years with the same coaching team to build through that and we’ve had three or four months with our full coaching team in place. We're working exceptionally hard every day to move forward."
Farrell's return
"The media describe it as a problem. I describe it as a fantastic squad of players that I have the privilege to work with, strength in depth across the squad. I think a lot of countries would look on it in an envious manner.
"How great is it that we have such incredible depth in quality there? I think a lot of countries would want the quality we've got - at 10 and 15. Marcus Smith came on and was brilliant in that last quarter.
"We still have a lot of growth in us. Players of quality are going to start coming back. I said the team is preparing for the tournament, they have immense quality throughout it, they want to perform on the biggest of stages and the boys showed that tonight."
