Steve Borthwick says his squad deserved enormous credit for the character they showed in victory at London Irish on Saturday.

Finishing strongly to close out a 21-16 victory, head coach Borthwick said: “What I said to the players at the end is that the game could have gone either way, it was a tight game, it could have been a loss, but the players showed immense character and fight. If it had been a loss, I would still have been proud of them for that.

“The players had to work things out, we had to adapt towards the end with a couple of knocks and bangs, but the players adapted and enormous credit to them.

“There is lots for us to improve on, the players are very quick to say that. We’ll look closely and review and try to be better next week.”

Borthwick added that the performance was built on the efforts of the entire squad, not just the 23 on duty at the Brentford Community Stadium, as they recorded another victory in Round 4 of the Gallagher Premiership season.

“The game is 80 minutes and you need 23 players in that and a squad throughout the whole week to ensure that the 23 are really well prepared for those 80 minutes, “ he said.

“The players not here today, they wanted to be in this team, they worked exceptionally hard to help the team prepare.

“It could have gone the other way at the end, last week could have gone the other way, but the players showed that character and fight, and that is a good foundation to build on.

“As coaches we need to be really clear what we need to improve and work hard on that and we will do that again for next week.”