Borthwick keeps positive tone

Lawrence Dallaglio, who led England on 22 occasions, described Borthwick's analysis as an insult to his intelligence and called for more honesty.

"This matters because rugby, when played correctly, is all about honesty," said Dallaglio.

"You don't feign injury on the pitch and afterwards you don't pretend you've performed when you haven't."

But Borthwick maintains he was right to highlight positive aspects of England's performance – because he knew the squad would be heavily criticised.

"I wasn't surprised (by the negative reaction)," said Borthwick, who will captain England for the 19th consecutive Test against Ireland tomorrow.

"What I said afterwards is that there are clearly areas to work upon but we did a lot of good things and I think that too often we play down those things and look immediately for the negatives.

"We made numerous linebreaks. What we don't hide from is that we have to convert those into points. We can make all the linebreaks we want but if we don't cross the tryline they count for nothing.

"I still stand by the fact that there were lots of good things."

England spent most of the game bogged down in a drab kicking game, despite clear signs that Italy could not live with their occasional flashes of attacking ambition.

No 8 Nick Easter and winger Mark Cueto both admitted their immediate reaction was that England's performance was "boring".

Borthwick added: "The person who asked me the question after the game is known for being slightly negative and I like to be a bit more positive.

"We know as a team what we are trying to achieve. All we can do is work to get better. Our focus is on producing the best performance we can this weekend."

Borthwick bristled at the suggestion that England may feel under pressure to play a more expansive brand of rugby in front of a demanding 82,000 crowd at Twickenham.

The 30-17 victory over Wales may have been as encouraging as the performance in Rome was disappointing – but England head into the Ireland game as one of only two unbeaten sides in the championship.

"Our job is to win," said Borthwick.

"Ireland are a very good side, they are packed full of experience. They were grand slam champions last season and they know each other very well.

"They are coming off a defeat and I am sure they will have put in a lot of hard work to bring their best performance to Twickenham this weekend.

"I am proud of this team, I am really proud of the way they have worked."

England acknowledge they must be more ruthless in attack if they are to threaten Ireland but that does not just mean throwing the ball around wildly.

A well-chased kick can be a key attacking weapon, as England proved against Wales but failed to execute in Rome.

"We need to create opportunities when we can run with the ball and I think you will see more of that at the weekend," said winger Ugo Monye.

"But it is a case of getting the balance right. If we are not in a position to run we have to make it a good kick.

"The quality of the chase is what makes the difference between a pretty good kick and a bad one.

"The way we chased our kicks was poor at times against Italy and I was guilty of that on a few occasions."

Northampton's uncapped winger Chris Ashton was put on alert after Cueto became the latest England player to be laid low by a stomach bug.

Cueto is a doubt for the game after being forced to sit out training yesterday.

Borthwick, Simon Shaw, Toby Flood and Shontayne Hape have all suffered stomach complaints during the championship.