England captain Steve Borthwick has insisted he is still the right man to lead the struggling side as they battle to finish up the table in the Six Nations.
Borthwick has come under fire for a failure to communicate effectively with referees while England have been collecting 10 yellow cards in their past four matches - a high tally by Test standards.
England, following defeats by Wales and Ireland, are fourth in the table and they have slipped to eighth in the world rankings - their lowest position since the standings were introduced.
There are many observers who question whether lock forward Borthwick is worth his place in the side, never mind querying his captaincy credentials.
But the 29-year-old Saracens second-row is expected to retain both his place in the team and the leadership of the side when England manager Martin Johnson names on Thursday his line-up to play France at Twickenham on Sunday.
However, in his most recent Powerade blog, Borthwick wrote: "There has inevitably been a lot of criticism flying around, but personally, I feel good about my own game and with the help of the senior players I believe I am captaining the side well. It continues to be a fantastic honour.
"We need to all help each other to make better decisions. We have collective responsibility as a team for our discipline on the field."
Turning to England's indiscipline, Borthwick said: "Why does it continue to happen? I think there is such a great desire to do well and sometimes that can spill over into over-eagerness. We are all so passionate and hungry for success, but that has to be controlled better."
Johnson, England's 2003 World Cup-winning captain and himself a former lock, was visibly angry when replacement scrum-half Danny Care was sin-binned for a reckless push on prop Marcus Horan in England's 14-13 loss last time out to tournament leaders Ireland in Dublin.
Training this week has seen them made to do 18 repetitions of various drills - one for every penalty they conceded at Croke Park - and Borthwick added: "Martin Johnson has been forthright with us, he was rightly furious.
"I want England supporters to know there is an incredible sense of frustration amongst all the players following our narrow loss to Ireland.
"The simple truth is yet again we threw away our chance to win a game through our own lack of discipline and the amount of penalties we gave away.
"If we had not had players in the sin bin or conceded so many penalties I genuinely believe we could have come away from Dublin with a win.
"I know the supporters have heard this all before, but we must immediately get a grip on our discipline."
Copyright 2009 AFP European Edition
