England are mentally weak under Steve Borthwick – he should go if they lose to Japan

They are, to be blunt, mentally weak, so terrified of their own shadows in the closing stages of the toughest Tests that they cannot even conjure inspiration against 14 men. No wonder Steve Borthwick looked haggard at the end: his team's sheer bone-headedness in the last 11 minutes, with Gerhard Steenekamp sent to the sin bin for a line-out infringement, was enough to torment his every waking hour.

Their sheer lack of guile in the final quarter is not just a problem, but a pathology.

Borthwick's nightmare is that the longer this inhibition at decisive moments goes on, the more ingrained it threatens to become. Technical flaws are quickly corrected, but psychological frailty can be a curse. And nowhere was it more evident than at the conclusion of this thunderous scrap with the back-to-back world champions, as England spurned a plethora of late chances.

South Africa, by no means in top gear here, gave the hosts every platform to claw back a nine-point deficit, but time and again the ascendancy was lost through senseless gaffes.

It was maddening to see Luke Cowan-Dickie penalised for a dummy throw, and doubly so to watch England fail to score with a three-man overlap as Henry Slade was screaming for the ball. A succession of five-metre line-outs came to nought because of a backline bereft of guile, cunning or creativity. Marcus Smith, Ollie Lawrence and the confounding Slade might be richly gifted players in their own right but they struggle to form a cohesive unit when it counts. When a devastating strike move was needed, all England could do was stick it up the jumper.

That, frankly, is a failure of coaching. Borthwick is presiding over deficiencies in every department, and the attrition rate among his staff does not kindle hope of a quick fix. Is Richard Wigglesworth capable of choreographing a world-class attack? And is Joe El-Abd an adequate replacement for Felix Jones in shoring up the defence? It is impossible to overlook the fact that England have conceded 12 tries this autumn, an unforgivable record at a stadium that is meant to be an impregnable citadel.

You wonder, too, if the gravity of the situation is truly grasped at the top. A press conference with Borthwick is turning into an audience with the speaking clock, each glass-half-full bromide intoned with metronomic certainty. "Big positives to take." "We'll be better for adversity." "You have to recognise how good South Africa are." All these messages were repeated ad nauseam in the aftermath, with the head coach suggesting that all could be redeemed with victory next Sunday over an enfeebled Japan.

It is the deference to the opposition that is perhaps the most alarming element of Borthwick's bland diplomacy. He has imparted the same message in successive weeks, arguing that three straight losses owed less to England's brittleness than to the wondrous qualities of their conquerors. New Zealand, Australia and now South Africa: all have missed key players, and all have made mistakes, but on every occasion Borthwick has painted them as dazzling world-beaters.

The Springboks would come the closest to that characterisation, given their glorious talent in every position, but still they made errors a more ruthless team would have punished.

While Borthwick insists he has "absolute support" from the Rugby Football Union, you wonder how long this posture can last. This was his fifth defeat on the bounce and his seventh in nine, a sequence that would have been inexcusable for any of his predecessors. It was a humbling at home by South Africa that ultimately did for Eddie Jones in 2022, and you look in vain for reasons why Borthwick should be shown mercy.

He is painting each of these chastening results as a crucial development exercise and yet England keep making the same careless blunders. Jamie George, likewise, appears oblivious to the severity of the brain fades. "Fundamentally, we are close," he said. "If we get our heads down, things will go our way." That is not a rallying cry, it is blind faith.

One major issue is that George, more often than not, leaves the field early, creating a vacuum of leadership. It happened again here, with the hooker making way after just 48 minutes for Cowan-Dickie, who committed his fateful miscue at the death. You can see the disintegration of England's plan unfold almost in real time: George trots off before the hour mark, and the team search desperately for somebody, anybody, to steer the ship in his absence.

I have long seen Maro Itoje as the natural answer, although he hardly helped his cause this time by coughing up three penalties. The evidence is indisputable, though: England are frequently descending into chaos with a captain who cannot last the course. Borthwick has to find an alternative, and quickly.

It was instructive to look at Harry Randall over the last few frantic minutes. Replacing the ineffectual Jack van Poortvliet, the scrum-half needed to organise the players around him, to give some semblance of structure and order, but instead he let the game drift. The lack of collective responsibility is glaring.

But still Borthwick presents a facade that everything is on the right path, that all will be forgiven if England dispatch a weak Japan team to close a harrowing autumn series. Jones, who would love nothing better as Japan's coach than to avenge his sacking by the RFU, knows solutions are seldom so seamless. Should he conjure a miracle win, his successor's position would be untenable. Borthwick is closer to the precipice than he imagines.