Steward: England must make Dublin date a turning point

Freddie Steward insists England face their moment of truth when they attempt to begin the healing process against Grand Slam-chasing Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

Steve Borthwick's team are reeling from the heaviest defeat in their Twickenham history after France amassed seven tries en route to a 53-10 rout that has sent shockwaves through English rugby.

While facing world number one Ireland on St Patrick’s weekend is the toughest possible arena in which to rebuild shattered reputations, Steward says England welcome the chance to show their character.

"Saturday was pretty bleak and I’d like to think that from there the only way is up and that we’ll improve," said Steward, the only player to emerge with any credit from the wreckage of round four.

"Grief is a pretty good way to describe it. It’s never nice to lose, but then to lose by a margin like that is pretty sore.

"The most frustrating thing is that we had ourselves to blame and there’s no shying away from that.

"At times like this you don’t want to splinter off because then the wheels would fall off. We’re in a good spot at the minute because we’ve stayed tight.

"As [defence coach] Kevin Sinfield has said to us, these weeks define teams. When you go to the depths that we did, that’s where you really challenge yourselves to pull together and come up with something.

"Hopefully we’ll look back on this when we regather in a couple of months’ time as a real point where we stepped up and improved."

Borthwick is wrestling with the dilemma of wanting to give the same team their shot at redemption while adjusting the line-up to account for Ireland’s strengths – their tactical cohesion, breakdown accuracy and relentless ferocity.

The starting XV for the climax to the Guinness Six