England full-back Freddie Steward has defended under-fire head coach Steve Borthwick and said the players were to blame for the South Africa defeat. The Red Roses lost their fifth consecutive Test match as they were defeated 29-20 at the Allianz Stadium, leading to speculation about Borthwick’s position.

As in their defeats against New Zealand and Australia in the autumn, the home team was ahead in the second half but failed to hold on for the lead.

And Steward, impressed by his return to the starting 15, argued the team must take responsibility.

“I think we let him (Steve Borthwick) down today, it shouldn’t be his fault,” he said after the final whistle. “As players we had a game plan that would put us in a position to win this game, but in the end we had to pull back and look at ourselves as to why we couldn’t get ahead.”

Asked if England had made progress, Steward said: “There’s no doubt about it. Yes, we haven’t had the results in the last few weeks but we’ve been close in all three. We believe in what we’re doing but as players we’ve got to take some responsibility for the result and try to win that game.”

Borthwick, 45, takes over from Eddie Jones in December 2022, having previously served as the Australian coach’s forwards coach. Just 11 months later he led his country to the Rugby World Cup semi-finals, where Handre Pollard’s late penalty made it 16-15 just seconds after the winner against the Springboks.

But England, who finished third in this year’s Six Nations, were narrowly defeated twice on the summer tour of New Zealand. These results have been boosted by their recent form, with Saturday’s game against Japan now viewed as a must-win game.

But the butler rambled on about how Borthwick’s job must be under threat. He also said the players were united behind the man who himself won 57 international caps and captained England for two years under Martin Johnson.

“He’s an incredible coach,” he added. “He has an incredible rugby brain, he is a great motivator and as coach and players we believe in everything he brings to this team.”

In his own post-match analysis, Borthwick claimed his team’s poor fitness had cost them dearly. He also hinted that three of his rivals have a momentum advantage after competing in the Rugby Championship until the end of September.

“Obviously we’ve played against a number of very good teams coming back from the Rugby Championship, so the test matches have become difficult,” he said. “You looked at the situation of the England players at the beginning of this series and saw that the situation was not quite where it needed to be for the rugby test match.”