Borthwick ready for bloodbath against Wales

After helping his current club wring a losing bonus point out of his next one during an entertaining top four duel, Bath's master line-out tactician made it clear that England will meet fire with fire at HQ on Saturday.

Wales coach Warren Gatland, seeking to avoid a 10th consecutive defeat at Twickenham, said: "We are going there prepared for a bloodbath. We don't mind turning it into one and we have to be as physical as we can. We have some big physical players who are only going to get bigger."

Borthwick, too young to remember the notorious England-Wales scraps at Twickenham in 1980 and Cardiff Arms Park seven years later, reported for national duty last night in no doubt that Phil Vickery's pack can handle whatever is thrown at them.

He said: "We have individuals who are prepared for a battle — prepared to represent their country in a manner which befits the honour.

"They can talk and say what they like about the game. We are going to work very hard on our preparation this week. From the starting XV to the seven on the bench, we will be fully determined to do England proud."

They will be wary lest Gatland's alliance with Shaun Edwards should produce an immediate transplant of the winning Wasps' mentality. Borthwick added: "We have seen the standard of teams these guys produce. They know how to produce successful teams so it's going to be a big challenge."

England will make decisions within the next 24 hours over the fitness of Mark Regan, Simon Shaw, Nick Easter, Paul Sackey, Lesley Vainikolo and Mike Tindall.

Brian Ashton will also have to determine whether Mathew Tait is still his preferred full back after a match to forget yesterday.

Mercifully, the collision of two of the Premiership's better teams spared Ashton any further anxiety as Bath's Borthwick, Lee Mears and Matt Stevens all finished with a clean bill of health in the hope of finding their way off the bench and into the team.

Saracens, without a single player among the 64 players summoned by England last month, are incapable of giving Ashton any injury worries.

This at least allows Sarries, captained for the first time by Andy Farrell, to go about their business of securing a top-four finish throughout the Six Nations without losing anyone anywhere.

There is a grit about them now which they have probably not had in any measure since they last won a trophy during the long-gone days of Francois Pienaar, Michael Lynagh and Philippe Sella 10 years ago.

Bath, despite the late try which put them within one point of Leicester in second place, fear they will be counting the cost of a sunny Sunday in Watford for some time. Butch James, the World Cup-winning Springbok fly half who has given them so much since arriving after the tournament, dislocated a shoulder in the act of scoring the opening try.

Another South African, Brent Russell, added two tries, selling more than one dummy for the first, then making the most of Glen Jackson's clever chip-andchase over a flat midfield defence to run away with the second. Bath threatened to overhaul Sarries for most of a lively game. Olly Barkley, capitalising on Michael Lipman's expert off-load, twisted over despite an ankle-tap from Alan Dickens, who made a major contribution as a late scrum-half replacement for the hamstrung Neil de Kock.

Substitute flanker Johnny Faamatuainu crossed in the corner three minutes from time before Sarries stuffed the ball up their jumper and booted it gleefully into touch when the hooter sounded, refusing to risk letting it out for Jackson to take a closerange drop at goal which would have sent Bath home emptyhanded.

By then, Borthwick, who joins Saracens in a £200,000-a-year move next season, had seen a sign of things to come. "I want to end my 10 years at Bath with some silverware," he said. "I've worked tremendously hard for a long time and I can't think of a better way of finishing."