Borthwick says England team he inherited from Eddie Jones 'weren't good at anything'

Steve Borthwick said the England team he took over from Eddie Jones "weren't good at anything" following a defeat in his first match in charge.

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Borthwick's reign as England coach started with a dramatic 29-23 loss to Scotland in a Six Nations opener at Twickenham on Saturday.

The new England boss had only had 11 days' training time with the squad after coaching mentor Jones was sacked following a poor November series that capped England's worst year since 2008.

"I've been frank from day one in saying there's a lot of work to do," insisted Borthwick. "When I looked at the team in the autumn, when I measured the team and got all the data for the team, we weren't good at anything. It was as frank as that."

England now face Italy, fresh from a gutsy 29-24 loss to Grand Slam champions France, in the second round, with Borthwick accepting his side remain a work in progress seven months out from the start of the World Cup.

"We are trying to build some strengths in this team and some bits we are pleased about and some bits we are disappointed about," he said. "My job is to make sure we get some improvements for Italy."

The former England captain added: "There are multiple areas we have tried to change. You saw some improvement in the scrum against Scotland which I was pleased about because it has been ranked as the worst scrum in tier-one (leading nations) rugby.

"We saw some improvements in the attack and speed of ball and we tried to improve the breakdown where England were ranked the ninth quickest, so one of the slowest in tier one."

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Meanwhile defence chief Kevin Sinfield, who worked with Borthwick when he coached Leicester to