Jamie George He later apologized to his fans. England suffered the heaviest defeat Twickenham history a week before they took on the toughest challenge in world rugby.
Sensational France cemented their status as World Cup favorites by claiming a 53-10 victory on Saturday, keeping their shaky hopes of maintaining their lead alive. Guinness Six Nations title.
But England were grieved and many fans reacted to the most damning evidence ever of their team’s downfall by pouring off the ground before the final whistle, while others booed to signal the end of Steve Borthwick’s short honeymoon.
Ireland in pursuit of the grand slam lurks at the Aviva Stadium during the culmination of Saturday’s tournament, and as Andy Farrell’s men top the world rankings, George knows an urgent response is needed.
“It’s hard for fans to leave early because I can relate to that — I’m a fan, too,” said the senior Saracens whore.
“I want to apologize because I really am one of them. I would be heartbroken if I had come to Twickenham to watch an England team play like this.
“We’re sorry and we have to make sure we’re getting better and learning from this experience because it’s clear we still have a long way to go.
“We haven’t been good enough for England fans for a short time and I can understand how they feel.
I want to apologize because I really am one of them. I would have been heartbroken if I had come to Twickenham to see an England team play like this.
Jamie George
“But I want to say to them, please stay with us because we will fight and give up to make sure we are a significantly better team going forward. I hope we don’t let them down like this again.
“We didn’t go against the second best team in the world. Not panic stations by any means, but there needs to be some conversation about how to proceed from this.
“When you get a result like this, you have two choices – you can roll over and throw your toys out of the stroller, or you can find out why it happened and what you need to do to fix it.
It hurts and we never want to feel that way again. You want to make sure we’re learning and getting better because it’s been six months now.”
Ireland underscored their championship credentials even as an on-court injury crisis unfolded around them, beating Scotland 22-7 at Murrayfield on Sunday.
In an indication of their superiority over a side playing to avoid recording just two wins for a third consecutive Six Nations, bookies have set the hosts high odds against the favorites to clinch their fourth Grand Slam.
“Coaches, players – we get hurt because of that. There’s no doubt that we were hurt. “We’re incredibly disappointed with what happened on that pitch,” Borthwick said.
“We never want that to happen. Now that this has happened, we need to make sure we learn from him as quickly as possible so that this kind of performance never happens again.
“When you lose touch area as badly as we do, you go back on offense, you go back on defense, and it’s very difficult to hold on to the game.
“We learned that there is a big difference between where we are now and where France is.
“We know we have an incredible challenge ahead of us in seven days, so we need to get a lot better for it.”