Ultimately, the outcome didn’t drastically change what has been a deeply disappointing Six Nations campaign for England, but Borthwick has come out fighting after his future was questioned following last weekend’s loss against Italy. One of the head coach’s main complaints concerned an incident that occurred as they led 39-38 with 14 minutes remaining on the clock. England believed they were going to receive a penalty, which altered their approach to a phase of play, according to Borthwick.

“We’ve been told on the pitch it was a penalty advantage,” he said.

“And I know probably some people at home probably are looking at why we played the way we did, and it should be explained that the players on the pitch were told it was a penalty advantage.

“So they played in a certain manner that knowing you had a penalty to go back to.

“Unfortunately, what happened in the background is the TMO would change it to a knock-on advantage. The players were unaware of it and France go down the other end and score a try.

“I think that World Rugby needs to look at that kind of situation.

“You can’t have the players playing with certain knowledge and then it taken away from them. Knowing that, I think some of those bits I find confusing.”

Borthwick also challenged the decision to show Ellis Genge a yellow card for collapsing a maul, something that proved extremely costly as England conceded 14 points whilst reduced to 14 men.

“I thought that one against Ellis to give a penalty try, I don’t follow it, I’ll ask for it to be explained to me,” he said.

Borthwick did acknowledge that his side’s discipline requires improvement, adding: “I’ll be very clear, our discipline needs to be better. We need to keep 15 men on the pitch.”