Henry Pollock scored a brace against Australia from the wing

Credit : Getty Images/Shaun Botterill

England’s players delivered on their self-created ultimatum to “do it for Steve” by annihilating an abysmal Australia. Barring an extraordinary sequence of events, Borthwick will now remain as head coach through to the World Cup.

Even if Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney’s vote of confidence in the head coach last week was delivered without caveats, he would still have been forced to play the role of reluctant Caesar if the crowd turned mutinous, as they did four years ago. That resulted in Sweeney delivering the thumbs down on Eddie Jones’s reign.

Yet this did not come to pass, as England showed plenty of fire and fury on behalf of their head coach after his control of the dressing room was questioned last week. With 14 minutes to go the crowd, who had been muted on Remembrance Sunday, broke into a rendition of Swing Low , indicating their own approval.

It was not perfect.…