England boss Steve Borthwick threatened to wield the axe in the wake of another disastrous defeat that killed their Six Nations title hopes. Borthwick was fuming his side failed to learn the lessons from last week's defeat in Scotland when they went 17-0 down in the first quarter and lost 31-20. On Saturday against the rampant Irish they were 22-0 down just before half-time, leaving the boss steaming and his side up the creek. They went on to lose 42-21 at Twickenham and suffer back-to-back defeats.

England face Italy in a fortnight then title favourites France a week later and Borthwick is ready to rip up his squad if they don't shape up. Borthwick said: "Unfortunately for two weeks now we have given ourselves a mountain to climb, given the opposition too many points and we have not got scoreboard presence. We will be looking closely at that and how I set the team up to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"Against New Zealand here we went 12-0 down and what did the players do? They responded brilliantly and found a way, reeled the opposition in. Unfortunately, we have conceded too many scores in that first period and given ourselves too much to do.

"Ultimately if you look at that first 20 minutes, Ireland scored very quickly after a period of time when we were sat on their goal line and unable to score. We need to make sure that we are better in that area, when we are in that 22 we come away with points one way or another."

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Skipper Maro Itoje, who had his big day celebrating his 100th England cap ruined by the rout, insisted it is up to the players to sort things out. Itoje said: "As players, we have to own it. It wasn't the result or performance we wanted and as players we have to take responsibility and make sure we're better. We know this is not good enough."

Cock-a-hoop Ireland boss Andy Farrell, who had been under fire after his side's recent slide, hailed his players for overturning the form book. Farrell said: "It looked like we were hunting people down through the game.

"It is a special day to come here and perform like that. The respect the lads showed for the jersey and what it meant and the respect they showed for the Irish people was the overriding feeling for me."