Freddie Steward says players, not Steve Borthwick, are at fault for England woe

Freddie Steward insists the players and not Steve Borthwick are at fault for the autumn washout that has piled pressure on England’s head coach.

Steward believes Borthwick has been “let down” by his team after South Africa clinched a 29-20 victory on Saturday, completing a clean sweep of defeats by the southern hemisphere giants after New Zealand and Australia also stormed Allianz Stadium this month.

Borthwick has revealed there will changes for the climax to the series against Eddie Jones’ Japan on Sunday, among them the return of Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso from concussion.

Japan, ranked 14th in the world, are expected to end England’s five-Test losing run that has left Borthwick facing questions over his future. Steward believes it is the players who should be held responsible.

“We almost let Steve down. I don’t think the fault should go to him at all. The fault probably lies in our hands,” the Leicester full-back said.

“As players we had a gameplan that put us in position to win that game. We’ve got to look at ourselves as to why we didn’t pull away at the end and go back ahead.

“Steve is an unbelievable coach. He has a great rugby brain, is an unbelievable motivator and man manager. As players we believe in everything he’s bringing to this team.”

England led 20-19 until Handre Pollard landed a long range penalty in the 59th minute but their challenge fell away in the final quarter due to a high error count and indiscipline.

“Steve’s honestly been fantastic. I’ve rarely seen a coach who has as much devotion as him. We need to do better by him. We need to finish off these games,” lock Maro Itoje said.

“The staff have been brilliant throughout this campaign. We’ve got one more week to go. It’s on us as players