Former England captain Dylan Hartley has claimed that Steve Borthwick’s side are facing an “identity crisis” before taking on Ireland.

Pressure has ramped up on Borthwick for a seemingly lack of long-term vision and Hartley has questioned an absence of clarity on what the head coach wants England to be.

“When you think about this England team, there is a big question around identity – there doesn’t seem to be one thing that you can hang your hat on and say “yes” that’s what this team is good at,” he told Gambling Zone.

“When I look at England, I see a team that are trying to evolve their attacking game along with trying to have a world-class set piece, and a ’new level’ of defence, and at the moment, the defence is leaky and is exposing them.

“If you look at what the All Blacks do, it’s such a low-risk defence. They’re just up and out. They might concede five or ten yards, but then someone like Sam Cane or Ardie Savea can kind of seduce you into thinking that you’re making inroads, and they turn you over. There is an identity issue that England need to address.

“I’d like to see what parts of the game they can hang their hat on when the going gets tough. At Twickenham, if it starts pissing down with rain and they can expose Andrew Porter’s shoulder, it would be lovely to fall back on to a set piece and a watertight hard-nosed defence.”