Six Nations 2024: Steve Borthwick reflects on England’s ‘painful’ defeat to Scotland - ‘A huge lesson’

Steve Borthwick said England’s 30-21 defeat to Scotland was a “painful experience” but one his side will learn from as they continue to develop.

Duhan van der Merwe starred for Scotland at Murrayfield and became the first player to seal a hat-trick of tries in a Calcutta Cup fixture as the hosts sealed a fourth successive victory over England.

Borthwick’s side were outplayed by Scotland, but the England coach plans to utilise the disappointment to their advantage.

"This is a painful experience for the team and for England supporters, and we will make sure we learn from it to be better in the future," Borthwick said.

He continued: "When you make that number of handling errors at this level, it's very difficult to win, especially against a team of Scotland's quality.

"Ultimately we made it too easy for Scotland to score, but they were very clinical.

"It's a huge lesson for our team as we develop. The number of turnovers made it very difficult to win."

England made 24 handling errors and conceded 22 turnovers in a lacklustre performance as their Grand Slam hopes ended in brutal fashion.

Borthwick pointed out his side's inexperience in comparison to the excellent Scotland side picked by Gregor Townsend.

"We'd all love progression to be a nice linear path but ultimately it's not, especially when you are trying to do it at this level," he said. "What you saw is a team that is trying to develop, a team that is trying to add layers to their game.

"We made errors and got punished - sometimes you get away with it, sometimes you don't. Against a team like Scotland, you don't.

"It's a big learning experience, it's a real painful lesson against a Scotland team that's been together a long time.

"There was a lack of cohesion and too many fundamental errors. We know today wasn't good enough. It is going to take some work and we know that."

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