Maro Itoje voices 'full support' for Steve Borthwick after England criticism: 'We're lucky to have him'

Borthwick was under heavy pressure heading into Sunday’s game, with a report in The Times this week claiming that the end of England’s summer tour was disrupted by a player-coach rift.It was alleged that unhappy players wanted crisis talks with Borthwick and Rugby Football Union (RFU) chief executive Bill Sweeney in Argentina in July.Ahead of the Australia game, vice-captain Jamie George spoke to the media to express his disappointment with the report, suggesting that “a lot” of what was said was “untrue”, while adding that it would have a galvanising effect on the team.England then ran in seven tries to record their biggest-ever winning margin over Australia, and Itoje backed his head coach again post-match, interjecting to offer his support to Borthwick during England’s press conference.Jumping in to speak after Borthwick revealed that several former coaches had reached out to offer their backing in the wake of the reports, Itoje was clear that Borthwick had the squad’s “full support”.Read More“Sorry, can I just add to that? I think, particularly from a player’s point of view, we have full support in Steve,” Itoje said.Support: Maro Itoje is fully behind under-fire England head coach Steve BorthwickAFP/Getty“I’ve had the privilege of Steve being my coach from 2016, with a little gap in his Leicester years, and that’s not the man I recognise.“The article doesn’t represent the environment I recognise, and I think if you speak to players over his coaching career, they will say a different story.“Particularly, often you think about players from other countries. If you speak to some of those guys from the 2017 [British and Irish] Lions tour, they’ll tell you about the impact Steve had on them, and those guys aren’t English.“I’m talking about the Irish guys, I’m talking about the Welsh guys who he had the pleasure of coaching and having an influence on.“From a player’s point of view, as always there are things that we want to get right. There’s things that we try and put on the field sometimes, for whatever reason it doesn’t quite click and I think often too much criticism is attached to the coach.“Whereas no matter how well Steve coaches us, we as players are the ones on the field, we as players are the ones who have to perform, and there have been times where we haven’t quite done that which has put a bit of pressure on him.He’s a world-class coach and we’re lucky to have himMaro Itoje on Steve Borthwick“So yeah, I’m delighted today that we were able to get the win. He’s a world-class coach and we’re lucky to have him.”Itoje, making his first England appearance since the Six Nations after a summer rest, went on to admit that while it was never nice to receive criticism, it was the players’ responsibility to prove their credentials after securing only a fourth win in nine games this calendar year.“I think it’s never nice getting criticism,” he said. “Criticism is part of the game, though. If we were scared of criticism, we wouldn’t be here. We would most possibly never run out and never play. It comes with the territory.“But we were just really excited to be back at Twickenham. I think we just want to show the growth of this team.“We have the opportunity in these next games to show the growth and where we want to go. That opportunity is right in front of us and it’s our responsibility as players to take hold of that.”