Steve Borthwick insisted today his confidence had not been dented by constant criticism but accepted a Six Nations loss to France at Twickenham on Sunday would leave him open to more flak.

The England captain has struggled to stamp his authority and personality on a team that have collected 10 yellow cards in their last four Tests and conceded a dreadful 18 penalties while losing 14-13 to Ireland in Dublin.

Ironically, Borthwick, the man charged with having to explain that awful record, has yet to concede a penalty after three Six Nations matches but today refused to distance himself from the problem.

He said: "The captain's job is fantastic and a huge honour and I try to influence things as positively as I can to try and help this team's development.

"I know the view of me as a captain is inextricably linked to the results of the team and that's reality. I thoroughly enjoy being captain of this team.

"It's true I haven't given away a penalty yet and all I do is the best I can on the pitch. In terms of other players following, it is an ongoing education process and we have given some very silly penalties away against Ireland and I told the referee he had a superb game.

"Unfortunately, we made some of the decisions he had to make very easy by how obvious they were.

"We have had referees Wayne Barnes and Andrew Small working with us and we are putting ourselves in a position to make better decisions on the pitch in matches. I am trying to influence things as positively as possible by my own actions and words."

Borthwick also revealed that England are finally learning from the past and starting to use the kind of disciplinary system that made Clive Woodward's 2003 World Cup-winning team such an efficient unit.

Woodward's men employed scrum- half Matt Dawson to repeat loudly every order from the referee and to shout "dead" when it was clear the ball could not be turned over and the opposition should be allowed to win it.

The Saracens lock accepted the kind of work England have been undertaking in training to make them hugely competitive at the break down had contributed to the penalty count which has been in double figures for too long.

As a result, England have changed the way they have trained this week to emphasis individual responsibility and to introduce the kind of system Woodward's men operated.

This will involve the men standing either side of the break down operating the same "dead" call, although they will use a different word and the entire team's interaction with referee Stuart Dickinson will be better. Borthwick explained: "We have been working very hard to be competitive and coupled with decision making we have to change our approach.

"We have to be more pragmatic because we have chased a few lost causes at the break down and been penalised. There are certain calls we will be using to try and ensure it doesn't happen."

Martin Johnson also admitted today that England would have to get their build- up to the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand right as they have to face an opening pool match against Argentina on 10 September.

The team manager said: "We are straight into the tournament with a game against Argentina and it's going to be huge.

"We have to make sure we get our preparation and warm-up games sorted before we go to New Zealand. We are in negotiations at the moment."

Meanwhile, Ugo Monye has revealed a recurrence of his back spasm against the Scarlets before the Six Nations started made him fear he would sit out the entire tournament. The wing has replaced Paul Sackey against France for his Six Nations debut.

Monye (left) said: "I feared I would miss out on the Six Nations because last time it took me eight weeks to recover which would have taken me right out of contention so to be back playing for Quins in three weeks was great.

"I played against the top three teams in the world in November but this tournament is against your rugby neighbours with huge rivalries."