Maro Itoje has assured England fans the team is closing in on the victory needed to vindicate claims progress is being made under Steve Borthwick.

England suffered a dramatic 24-22 defeat to New Zealand at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, putting them on the back foot for remaining autumn Tests against Australia, South Africa and Japan.

Apart from a glorious victory against Ireland in March, they made a habit of building winning positions against top opponents only to ultimately spoil the match in the closing stages.

This trend is illustrated by the fact that their three consecutive defeats to the All Blacks under Borthwick ended by a combined total of 10 points – and each time they led into the final quarter.

“We will get there. We have to lick our wounds and take our medicine at the moment, but this team is building in a positive direction,” said Saracens lock Itoje.

“I’ve been on a few teams and you have a sense of when a team is moving in the right direction.

“I think we are progressing in the right areas of the game, we are aggressive in attack and there is a general feeling of confidence and atmosphere among the players.

“We’ve had some awful losses, but they’re a different team than they were 18 months ago with the way we’re playing, the effort we’re showing.

“Sometimes in the past when we lost, they were obvious losses and we were grasping at straws. I don’t feel like we’re holding on to any problems now. We lost but we are close.

“We didn’t feel like we were playing a team that was much better than us and we were surviving.

“We actually thought we deserved to win the game, but in the end we didn’t and that’s the most important thing.

“But I feel like we’re definitely moving in the right direction. Unfortunately we will have to take our medicine now, but I think we will get it.

Sale’s England Under-20s prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour has been called up as loose cover following the retirement of Joe Marler. The uncapped Opoku-Fordjour will cover Ellis Genge and Fin Baxter.