George & Borthwick react to France loss
Captain Jamie George and head coach Steve Borthwick react to the loss in Lyon.
A 79th minute penalty saw France beat England 33-31 in Lyon. Tries from Ollie Lawrence (2), Marcus Smith and Tommy Freeman, as well as 11 points from the boot of George Ford was not enough, as France edged the Test courtesy of tries from Nolann Le Garrec, Leo Barre and Gael Fickou, in addition to 18 points from Thomas Ramos.
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After finishing third in the 2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship, captain George and head coach Borthwick react to the loss in Lyon.
Jamie George: "It's reminiscent of the last time we were in France against South Africa. I don't really know how to sum that up; there were times in the first 20 minutes of the game France showed their class but we found a way back into the game with some individual brilliance. I'm really proud of the boys' effort, this team is definitely on an upward curve.
"The way we came out at the start of the second half was impressive, when we play and put teams under pressure with the ball we look dangerous. I felt like we put France under a lot of pressure tonight, but fair play to them they showed their class and fair play to Ramos at the end for knocking that over.
"I thought we have performed very well throughout the tournament, I think we will look back and be very disappointed with that Scotland result and the way we played. Sometimes you can take the result out of it and look at the performance as a whole - and it wasn't perfect out there by any means but we gave it a good go, I thought our scrum and set piece held up nicely - discipline let us down a bit so we have to make sure and fix that. But we had endeavour to go out there and play with a smile on our face - I have loved the last seven weeks."
Steve Borthwick: "I'm really disappointed for the players; they worked so hard and desperately wanted to win, and I'm disappointed for the supporters who have been magnificent. I am immensely proud of the players and how hard they have worked to progress.
"Sometimes you have to just stay in the fight and I think the boys did that well. If we had one more opportunity there I think we could've got that score but ultimately we ran out of time. We are a team that plays with that much fight and that much intensity - we never actually lose, we just run out of time - and unfortunately we ran out of time tonight.
"We thought we could come here and win but what we have shown over the past few weeks is that we can compete with the top four teams again, we don't just want to compete, we want to win but we've made a first step in the right direction."
