Steve Borthwick remains confident in his England team’s trajectory despite the absorbing last-gasp loss at France confirming their worst-ever Six Nations. England finish the tournament with four defeats and just one victory, against struggling Wales, after coming agonisingly close to dethroning the champions in their own capital. France full-back Thomas Ramos won a rollercoaster game with the very last kick to settle a 13-try, 94-point thriller at the Stade de France. The Red Roses were massively improved in Paris and led with two minutes to go but still fell to a fourth successive loss to add to reverses against Scotland, Ireland and Italy.

Asked what he would say to his critics who doubt his ability to take the team further, Borthwick – whose team were on a 12-match winning streak before losing to the Scots at Murrayfield – told ITV: “I am very clear on the direction of the team, very clear on what we’ve got to do. We’re disappointed, we wanted to achieve much more in this championship, clearly. Disappointed for our supporters, we wanted to give them something to celebrate. We’ve been unable to do that. But we will make sure that we do that going forward.”

He added to journalists: “I believe I am the right man to lead this team forward regardless. The team has been going through a tough spell, but it has a lot of growth in it. This experience and pain everyone is feeling now will be used to make the team stronger. Myself, Maro [Itoje] and the hierarchy at the RFU all share that vision.”

The under-pressure 46-year-old was keen to pay credit to back-to-back champions France, who denied Ireland the title in extraordinary circumstances as Louis Bielle-Biarrey also scored four tries.

The England boss continued to ITV: “Well firstly we should congratulate France, they are a tremendous team and have done so well. It was an excellent game and they are formidable opponents. Huge congratulations to France, Fabian [Galthie] and all their team.

“Last year we won it very late in the game and it’s the nature of this game, England vs France. Two very good sides who go head-to-head. It’s an outstanding game of rugby and a brilliant atmosphere here.

“It has taken time from a training perspective, it has taken time to ensure the relationships within the team. We work those aspects together. We are bitterly disappointed with the last few weeks and we wanted to get a great result for our supporters tonight. We’re disappointed we didn’t get the result for them but I hope they can be proud of the way their team played.”

Discipline was a key problem for England throughout the championship with Ellis Genge the one given his marching orders here shortly before half-time. Borthwick admitted: “The yellow cards this tournament have hurt us. If you look at that yellow card, the nature of it, I think that’s a very debatable yellow card.

“As was Henry Arundell’s right at the start of the Scotland game which World Rugby have said shouldn’t have been a yellow card. Unfortunately a little bit of luck has gone against us on those couple of decisions but we have got to be a lot better than that.”

Captain Maro Itoje reflected to ITV: “We had a tough couple of games. This game, we’re quite disappointed to lose. But we showed the spirit of this team and in sport you don’t want to go through the experiences that we went through over the last four games.

“But I truly believe this team is going places. Our experiences, we’ll learn from it and we’ll be better for it. Test match rugby is a tough, tough sport. You have to be on it and sharp straight from the off. We’ll be better. We’ll regroup, we’ll take the lessons, there’s some big ones for us to learn, but we’ll get better.”