Steve Borthwick insists England’s battle-hardened players are ready for the Guinness Six Nations as a result of facing greater club demands than any of their rivals.
Borthwick’s 36-man squad have comfortably racked up the highest number of minutes played since the World Cup due to their Gallagher Premiership and European commitments.
But while they will enter the Six Nations depleted by a greater workload – they have accumulated over two hours of game time more per player than next highest France – Borthwick believes they have benefited from the competitiveness of English clubs.
Six Premiership teams have reached the knockout phase of the Investec Champions Cup while the domestic league itself is more compelling that ever following its reduction in teams.
“The players are match-hardened, so that’s a great benefit. Generally I will try to look at the positive side and I have a group of players that are match-hardened. They are ready to go,” Borthwick said.
“The other thing is the nature of the Premiership. All of the games are counting so the leverage of all these games is huge.
“And there have been teams fighting in Europe to get qualification, fighting to find a way to win which, again, is a real positive.
“Everything we’re getting is saying all the clubs are running more than they were 12 months ago, so that’s a real positive.”
England may enter Saturday’s opener against Italy in a fitter state than they were at the equivalent stage in 2023, but Premiership duty will not have equipped them for breakdown and contact area demands of a Six Nations.
And Borthwick has also told his players that there is a minimum requirement every time they pull on a Red Rose jersey.
“The Six Nations is a real contest. It’s breakdown contest game so we need to ensure that we’ve got that running right as well as the level of repeatability around the contact area,” Borthwick said.
“We are going to improve as a rugby team. We will get tactically and technically better, and we will get fitter.
“The supporters also need to see that this team fights all the time, is competitive all the time and plays at the intensity required in an England team.
“That is the base standard and if you have that, you can add the technical and tactical elements that will then follow.”
Argentinian coach Gonzalo Quesada took charge of Italy after the World Cup, replacing Kieran Crowley, and Borthwick insists England will have to think on their feet to contain a repurposed Azzurri.
“Under Kieran Crowley Italy played a phased attack game,” he said.
“They beat Australia, pushed South Africa, beat Wales in Cardiff and in the first game of the Championship last year they went very close to beating France. This is a very dangerous team.
“Quesada played a very different style to that at the Jaguares and at Stade Francais, much more of a blend of forward dominance with competitive kicking, lower phase count.
“They are two contrasting styles so the interesting question for Italy is what can they put together in that first game? We’ll have to be ready to recognise what style they are bringing very early in the game.”
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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