ENGLAND FULLBACK Freddie Steward believes that the England Rugby team's thrashing at the hands of France at Twickenham last weekend could be a real turning point for them going forward.
Steve Borthwick's side suffered a record home defeat to France at Twickenham last weekend. France upset the new regime by winning 10-53 in southwest London.
England now face an even harder task this weekend in the final game of the Six Nations.
The Red Rose travel to Ireland this St Patricks weekend to face the number one side in Ireland.
Ireland have beaten every team in this year's Six Nations and have a chance to win a Grand Slam on home soil for the first time in their history.
England and Ireland is always a colourful affair and this weekend promises to be no different when the game gets underway at 5pm at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Steward who is most likely to start for England this weekend believes that they have to improve when they take on Andy Farrell's side this weekend.
Just what England needed! 🏴
Freddie Steward touches down for England's first try of the match.#ITVRugby | #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/AfZMjhOCzw— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) March 11, 2023
"Saturday was pretty bleak and I’d like to think that from there the only way is up and that we’ll improve," said Steward.
"Grief is a pretty good way to describe it. It’s never nice to lose, but then to lose by a margin like that is pretty sore.
"The most frustrating thing is that we had ourselves to blame and there’s no shying away from that.
"At times like this you don’t want to splinter off because then the wheels would fall off. We’re in a good spot at the minute because we’ve stayed tight.
"As [defence coach] Kevin Sinfield has said to us, these weeks define teams. When you go to the depths that we did, that’s where you really challenge yourselves to pull together and come up with something.
"Hopefully we’ll look back on this when we regather in a couple of months’ time as a real point where we stepped up and improved."
Ireland's game against England can be seen live on Virgin Media and the BBC.
Ireland's team will be announced on Friday
