La Rochelle boss Ronan O’Gara was left ‘completely lost’ as to where England are as a team under head coach Steve Borthwick.

England endured their worst-ever Six Nations campaign this year, claiming just one win from five and lost to Italy for the first time ever.

However, it was the 42-21 defeat to Ireland that left the legendary fly-half perplexed about what England were trying to achieve, and he believes that the coaching team and fans won’t be forgetting that performance anytime soon.

England were dominated by Ireland

Following the underwhelming Six Nations campaign, the RFU launched a comprehensive review of the performance and the coaching team but opted to take no action. The team did bounce back in the Nations Championship somewhat, defeating Argentina and Fiji, but those results also came after a loss to South Africa.

Ahead of the November Nations Championship Tests, O’Gara weighed in on all the teams involved in an interview with fellow former Lions fly-half Dan Biggar and the La Rochelle boss was rather damning about Borthwick’s men.

“The England-Ireland game left me completely lost as to where England are,” O’Gara told Biggar in an interview with the Daily Mail.

“Never have I seen such a demolition for 80 minutes. Those sorts of days are not easily forgotten or forgiven by the coaches. It’s the same for the public. That could be scarring.”

PREM Rugby defences and getting the timing right

While the jury remains out on Borthwick’s team, O’Gara warns that England have a tendency to get things right in time for Rugby World Cups.

“Historically, England are good at performing at World Cups,” says O’Gara.

“You can always count on the mentality of their forwards. For England to take the next step, they need to play. England have to kick with intelligence, as all teams must at Test level.

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“But I think where England don’t push their ceiling high enough is that sometimes they revert to a box kick rather than trusting their instinct to play what’s in front of them. It’s more prescribed rugby, as opposed to instinctive.”

Much has been made of England’s discipline and their blunt attack in recent times and O’Gara says that while Borthwick has depth at his disposal, the head coach will be concerned around unlocking international defences despite the high scores in PREM Rugby this season.

“There’s been nothing like the defence you see in Test rugby in the PREM this season,” he explained.

“The way the game is going as a whole does favour the attack. But what’s interesting is that in the PREM, a lot of matches – not all, but a lot – are decided by the final 10 minutes.

“In Test rugby, most are decided in that period. Does that help or hinder England? We’ll find out this month.”