England skipper Chris Robshaw is facing a triple whammy of problems ahead of the third autumn international against Samoa at Twickenham.

The Harlequins flanker could not inspire England against South Africa at rugby HQ last weekend, going down 31-28.

It means Robshaw and co have lost five in a row and not beaten the Springboks in 12 attempts.

In a reversal of the previous weekend’s defeat to the All Blacks, England were slow out of the blocks against South Africa, ultimately finding themselves 20-6 down at the break.

But a slow start was just one of the problems Robshaw insists needs addressing ahead of the Samoa clash this afternoon (Saturday).

He said: “We were a bit reactive on Saturday, we allowed them to get ahead of us and then we had to play catch up.

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“We had a brilliant patch where we got two driving mauls going, but unfortunately we allowed them to get their driving maul going too.

“It’s tough to take, especially at home, but we’ll have to work hard and come back next week.”

Also on the skipper’s “must do” list is replicating on the field of play what they do on the training pitch, as well as addressing a discipline problem that cost them valuable early points against South Africa.

He said: “We are not doing ourselves justice. The problem is we all know the way we train and the way we want to play, but we haven’t put it on the pitch as well as we would have liked.

“And our discipline has been poor.

“We gave South Africa an intercept try and two penalties and all of a sudden we were chasing the game.

“It is the pressure of these big games and the huge intensity they bring.

“We have played the best two sides in the world and they put you under pressure in tough areas.

“It’s something we are addressing in our camp.”

Head coach Stuart Lancaster has acted by dropping Quins scrum-half Danny Care, who celebrated his 50th cap against South Africa, Billy Vunipola and Kyle Eastmond.

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Off form: Harlequins’ Danny Care may have reached 50 England caps last weekend, but there was no room for sentimentality as head coach Stuart Lancaster has dropped the scrum half for the Samoa international            Picture: Getty Images

Into the starting line up comes James Haskell, while Billy Twelvetrees and Richard Wigglesworth are in the squad, and Ben Youngs takes Care’s shirt.

Despite this, and there being only 10 games between now and the start of the World Cup, Lancaster insists he is not about to hit the panic button.

“It’s easy to say you’ve not won any of your past five games, but the opposition has been pretty good and three of the defeats were in New Zealand,” he said.

“We’ve not been smashed by any of them. I’ve seen South Africa get beaten by 30 points in the summer, I’ve seen South Africa beat Australia by 30 points, and I’ve seen New Zealand put 50 points on Australia.

“Now we’ve come up short and we’re not happy about that, but we’ve not been smashed.”