George Ford admits England must conduct an uncomfortable inquest into Saturday’s Fiji debacle if they are to halt their freefall in time to make an impression on the World Cup.
Twickenham was stormed 30-22 by the Islanders as England fell to a current tier two nation for the first time in their 152-year history, registering a fifth defeat in six matches.
Fiji’s magnificent victory has heightened the sense of crisis at the Rugby Football Union with the pivotal World Cup opener against Argentina on September just two weeks away.
Even the Pool D fixtures against Japan and Samoa are fraught with danger given the depth of England’s current malaise and Ford insists that only by confronting hard truths will disaster be averted in Marseille.
“We don’t want the benefit of the doubt, we know we haven’t played well enough and know the results haven’t been good enough,” Ford said.
“When you lose for England you understand what’s going to come with it. We’re not shying away from that.
“We’re going to stick together and sort ourselves out in terms of making our preparation as good as it can be for Argentina. I’m comfortable we’ll be in a good place.
“What separates good teams from the great is that when things aren’t going well and you need to front a few things up and be honest, you do that.
“Look it square in the face because you can’t ignore those things – if you do then they will come back to haunt you later on.”
Head coach Steve Borthwick repeatedly highlighted the error count and missed tackles when explaining the nation’s first ever loss to Fiji, whose customary magic in attack was matched by tactical cohesion and smart decision-making.
England started like a freight train with Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence running on to Ford’s fizzing passes, Jonny May crossing in the left corner and the breakdown being bossed by a high-energy pack.
But as a downpour of heavy rain came and went, Fiji took control to expose a defence that has now conceded 30 tries in nine matches under Borthwick.
In recent weeks England have repeatedly stressed the quality of their training, suggesting the performances on a Saturday were an anomaly, but Ford insists practise has also been sub-par.
“Any time you play for England – especially at Twickenham – you you’ve got to pull out on the right side of the scoreboard and unfortunately we had a lot of errors against Fiji,” Ford said.
“We’re making too many errors. Now what the reason for that is I can’t be sure. Maybe it is a little bit of over eagerness or a little bit of inaccuracy, or maybe it is a little bit of understanding.
“It’s probably a little bit of all of it, to be honest. But one thing for sure is we can’t keep doing it.
“When it comes to our plan for Argentina and our understanding of what we need to do to win that game, we’ll be crystal clear on it. I’m more than confident we’ll be able to get it right for that game.
“We understand that we need to make fewer mistakes. There’s an urgency that we need to fix it and get better.
“The way you do that is to be more consistent in training. We’re clearly not consistent in training, there are probably too many errors in training. We’re playing the way we train at the minute, which is not good enough obviously.”
Springboks aiming to have 'two best teams in the world', says Esterhuizen
South Africa centre Andre Esterhuizen said that the Springboks are aiming to have "the two best teams in the world" ahead of their Autumn Nations Series clash against England.
The world champions were pushed all the way by Scotland in their narrow victory at Murrayfield on Sunday, though head coach Rassie Erasmus opted to rotate some key starting positions.
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi and flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit started on the bench, with the changes a common theme during Erasmus' seven-year tenure.
Their opening Autumn Nations Series victory also put them back on top of the world rankings after Ireland's first defeat in 19 home games by New Zealand on Friday.
"One of the good things is that everyone is getting game time now," Esterhuizen told the BBC's Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
"It is also about looking forward, you've got to be able to spare all the guys for the next World Cup and build experience into it.
"The aim is to have the two best teams in the world, all in one squad.
"We want to make it second nature for people slotting in, so if someone steps in, they can just slot in and play the same if not better than the other player."
South Africa next face England, who are yet to pick up a win this autumn, at Twickenham on Saturday.
Steve Borthwick's side suffered a narrow two-point defeat by New Zealand, before conceding an injury-time winning try to Australia on Saturday.
England have now lost each of their last four Test matches, their longest such run since losing five straight games in 2018, but Esterhuizen's former Harlequins team-mate Marcus Smith has been impressive for the Red Roses.
"It's a great space, I obviously love to play there," Esterhuizen added. "It will be great to be running at Marcus, not run off him.
"It's going to be a great match, England have played well in the last few games, it's unfortunate that it hasn't been the results that they want. I think it's going to be a big one."
The Springboks have won three of their last four matches against England (L1), including each of their last two. Three of the last five games between England and South Africa have been decided by single-point margins.
Ireland ready to respond after 'honest' New Zealand chat, says Hansen
Mack Hansen has backed Ireland to bounce back from their 23-13 defeat to New Zealand that saw their 19-game home winning streak come to an end.
The loss also saw Ireland tumble from atop the world rankings to third as the All Blacks repeated their World Cup quarter-final success from last year, and also marked New Zealand's first win on Irish soil since 2016.
Ireland had previously won 25 of their 26 home games under Andy Farrell, which was their longest run on home soil, with their latest defeat before last Friday coming against France in 2021 (13-15).
While questions have been asked of a team that have been beaten in three of their past five matches, Hansen was adamant that the mood is not dampened ahead of Friday’s visit of Argentina.
"People are always very eager to jump on you when you’re down. It’s like in South Africa, nobody gave them a hope after the first Test," said Hansen.
“And what happens? They come back and win it. That’s the best thing about this group. The outside noise is outside noise and nobody knows what goes on in here, how hard we work and how resilient we are.
"People can chat away. The people who know us know, unfortunately, it was one of those weeks [against New Zealand], but we’re ready to bounce back.”
Ireland's display was littered with errors against the All Blacks, which included 21 handling mistakes, 30 missed tackles and 13 penalties conceded at the Aviva Stadium.
But eradicating those mistakes could prove difficult when they face Argentina on Friday, who come into the encounter on the back of a 50-18 thrashing of Italy.
Ireland, however, have not lost to the Pumas since the 2015 World Cup quarter-final and have beaten them on the three subsequent occasions they have played in Dublin.
And Hansen is confident his team-mates can respond against Felipe Contepomi's side and continue their impressive run against Argentina.
“There weren’t really hard chats, just honest chats,” added Hansen on Monday's debrief.
"We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t good enough and also that it just wasn’t us.
"So this week we’re looking to right a lot of wrongs and no better place to do it then back in the Aviva in front of a home crowd."
'Brutal' Australia review exactly what England needed, says Sleightholme
Ollie Sleightholme described England's review of their late defeat to Australia as "brutal", but insisted it was exactly what the squad needed.
England had led by 12 points and then trailed by 10 in an end-to-end encounter, but Maro Itoje's 78th-minute try seemed to have settled matters by moving the hosts 37-35 ahead.
However, in the final play of the match, Len Ikitau found space and fed replacement wing Max Jorgensen, who settled the contest.
The result saw the Wallabies defeat England at the Allianz Stadium for the first time since the pool stages of the 2015 Rugby World Cup when they won 33-13, with their tally of 42 points the most they had scored away to the Red Roses.
The result was their second narrow defeat in the Autumn Nations Series after the two-point loss to New Zealand, and their fourth defeat in a row.
Sleightholme came on as a replacement and scored twice in the second half to register his first two international tries, but provided insight into what followed after the loss.
"It has been really good to chew the fat on what happened and really get a grasp of what we need to do and what needs to change," Sleightholme told BBC Sport.
"It was a brutal view and it needs to be. It was a case of getting it all out there and not shying away from any of it.
"At the end of the day we didn't get it done. It is a frustrating review and a frustrating game to look back on.
"We left some opportunities out there and we didn't nullify some of their attacks. There are a few things [to work on] in all areas."
Saturday marked the first time England have lost four Test matches in a row since 2018, when they suffered five straight defeats under Eddie Jones.
It is the fourth game in five matches that Steve Borthwick's side have fallen on the wrong side of the result during the final play.
It followed two close Tests against the All Blacks in July and a 33-31 defeat by France in their final game of this year's Six Nations.
On Saturday, England will face world champions South Africa, who defeated Scotland in their opening match of the autumn series on Sunday.
"We're testing fans' patience, testing our patience," said England's Ben Earl. "It feels like we won the game twice against Australia and then managed to lose it. Frustrating.
"Not the same old problems, different problems, but the same overwhelming feeling of another game that we've let slip. So food for thought."
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