Borthwick urges England to 'finish the job' ahead of Autumn Nations Series opener

November 01, 2024
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Ultimate Rugby

England were narrowly beaten in their two previous meetings with New Zealand, and Steve Borthwick wants his players to be more ruthless.

Steve Borthwick has challenged England to "finish the job" by converting positive performances into victories against the world's top teams.

The 2003 world champions begin their Autumn Nations Series against New Zealand at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

England are aiming to bounce back from narrow defeats against the All Blacks, who prevailed 16-15 and 24-17 in their two previous encounters in July.

Borthwick's side were also narrowly beaten 33-31 by France in their final match of this year's Six Nations, while a last-gasp 16-15 loss at the hands of South Africa denied them a place in the 2023 World Cup final.

And the head coach wants his players to demonstrate their ruthless streak to get them over the line against the bigger nations.

"We've got a young squad," he told TNT Sports. "There's a real feeling of enthusiasm for where they can take this team.

"I think you've seen that evolution with the team, but also seeing there's plenty we've still got to do. It's a brilliant series ahead.

"There was a period where the England team weren't necessarily challenging those teams at the top of the world rankings. Now, we've been able to do that in recent times.

"We haven't won as many games as we wanted to. In a lot of those games, it came to that final quarter where we've been in a position to win it, and we haven't been able to convert it to the result we wanted.

"Now, we're going to make sure we finish the job, and that's been part of the discussion with the players last week."