The vote of confidence came at 11am on Sunday morning. The England players would’ve still been nursing cuts and bruised egos sustained from their inglorious defeat to Italy.
As they prepared to travel from Rome to their training camp in Verona, RFU CEO Bill Sweeney issued his statement.
In short, with the England men’s team on a run of three defeats on the bounce in the Six Nations, he still backs head coach Steve Borthwick. Well, at least until the end of the Nations Championship; in effect, giving Borthwick four games to turn things around, starting with France on Saturday in Paris.
This was meant to be a Six Nations where England headed into this final weekend chasing a Grand Slam. They came into the championship 11 wins on the bounce, looking like they had forgotten how to lose. But things have fallen apart, leaving a sense of bewilderment at how England have disintegrated into a team looking short on confidence and lacking on-field clarity.
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So, what’s gone wrong?
Well, everything, apart from the scrum. After their comfortable opening round win over Wales, it looked like a slightly rusty England were warming up. Scotland at this point had just lost in Italy, and Gregor Townsend’s job was on the line. Then came the obliteration in Murrayfield as England’s discipline slipped with Henry Arundell red carded, Scotland pounced, and consigned Borthwick’s side to a 31-20 defeat. They lapsed into uncharacteristic errors and looked like a team struggling to meet the emotional intensity of their opponents. Scotland attacked wide, exploited the space, and cut apart a disorganised English defence.
But there was hope: Ireland were coming to Twickenham, and they’d looked poor in their defeat to France and shaky in the win over Italy. But Ireland dominated England. England’s lineout disintegrated, their wide channels paper-thin in defence and Ireland picked them off. Again discipline was a big issue, England picking up two yellow cards and Ireland secured their biggest ever win at Twickenham, triumphing 42-21.
With Italy next up, a team England had never lost to in 32 matches, Borthwick made nine changes, ripping up best-laid plans and telling his team they’d fallen short of his standards. There were new-look combinations all over the field. Borthwick had always maintained that a team needs to find an emotional levelheadedness: be calm and humble when things are going well, and trust in the process when results go against them. But this was drastic. For the first 60 or so minutes in Rome, England managed to build an 18-10 lead with a restricted gameplan: kicking off 9 and nudging in behind. Again their discipline fell apart with two yellow cards halting any momentum, leaving Italy with a shot at history which they duly took.
England have 12 wins from 15 — so that’s not the worst return — but the three defeats on the bounce leave cause for alarm. The team look disorganised and disjointed. England’s disciplinary record is the worst in the Six Nations this year (7 yellows, 1 red). The attack is struggling. Per Opta, they have made the second most attacking 22 entries this tournament (48), but have the second-worst points per entry rate (2). On the other side of the ball, they have conceded the fewest 22 entries (29) but conceded the most points per entry (3.2). They have made the fewest turnovers in the championship with 22, 13 off leaders Ireland.
Back in November, England used their “pom squad” effectively — a swathe of second-half substitutions which maintained tempo and momentum, including a batch of British & Irish Lions. Injuries to Fin Baxter, Will Stuart, Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso have weakened the bench’s influence, and we haven’t seen the same tempo-shifting impact this championship. Against Ireland we saw Borthwick make two first-half tactical shifts to try and fix their collapsed lineout and inability to attack from deep. In Rome, the substitutions came later than ever, perhaps suggesting he has less faith in his bench than back in November.
Some players look emotionally and physically shattered. A source told ESPN the team are suffering from “paralysis from analysis”. Another said the professional game partnership between the RFU and Prem Rugby, giving England influence over the skills and conditioning of a group of selected key players is clearly not working, as the players are “out on their feet”. One other source said the team “look tired” and there’s “poor team leadership.” Whoever you ask, there are different theories behind the slump. But the collective view is one of bemusement and concern.
What are the England players saying?
Fresh from the defeat at the weekend, Itoje said “We have to take responsibility for where we are. But Steve is definitely the right guy, and the rest of the coaches are, they’ve been fantastic. It’s on us as players to be better. We’re the ones on the field. He can’t play the game for us.
“Myself as captain and the rest of the senior guys, I think we take responsibility. The answers are within that group, within the players, within the coaches. So as a group of senior players, we need to be better. No one should be happy if we’re losing three games. We certainly aren’t.”
Ben Earl offered a slightly bemusing take to reporters there that: “There’s an element of pride because I actually thought we played pretty well. If that game ended at 60 minutes, you’d say that was an unbelievable performance by England. Honestly, I am so buoyant with this team, we just have to win some games of rugby and we will.”
Earl has been one of England’s few bright sparks in this campaign, and won his 50th cap against Italy on Saturday. But when asked if there’s concern of fans losing patience he said: “Because what, we’ve lost three on the bounce? England rugby should never lose a game of rugby, apparently.”
The team are unequivocally behind Borthwick. “Steve gives us a game plan where I have complete, supreme confidence that we’ll win every game, and that’s not always been the case with every coach I’ve played under,” Earl said. “The game plan has worked for 12 out of the last 15 times, so the noise is wild. It’s crazy. It’s crazy because if anyone’s letting Steve down, it’s us.”
Itoje added: “Steve is definitely the right guy for the job,” said Itoje. “He’s a fantastic coach. He’s led us to 12 wins, big performances against the All Blacks, big wins. So obviously, it’s not where we want to be at the moment, there’s no hiding away from that.”
What’s the view from the former pros?
The feedback varies from Austin Healey, who is calling for Borthwick to go, to Dan Cole, who says he has faith in Borthwick’s leadership. There’s widespread united praise for Italy, but differing theories behind England’s slump.
“Questions need to be asked about England’s strategy and methodology — about how they believe the game should be played at this level,” Matt Dawson said on BBC 5 Live. “The way England are playing, they are not going to win international matches.”
Ben Youngs and Cole disagreed on whether there’s reason to panic on their For the Love of Rugby podcast. “The way it’s set up with central contracts, resources, players, coaches, that should not be happening,” Youngs said. “I just don’t agree that that should be happening.
“England looked like a team set up to just not lose rather than go win it. And we’re going to approach like that in a game against Italy? The whole setup’s wrong. That’s not the mindset. I never go into a game thinking that. Madness. And I think if we accept this, that that’s okay, and that’s where we’re at, that’s not acceptable.”
Cole countered: “He’s one of the few coaches I’ve worked under or with who thinks. He has a plan in place and sometimes it feels unemotional, but he has a way of preparing, structuring and performing that I knew what my job was on the field. Everything in the environment is geared towards winning, there’s nothing done for fluff.”
Their former Leicester colleague Healey said on TNT: “The stats aren’t good for Steve Borthwick, the amount of support he’s had is top-notch. I think it’s time for a change. I think it’s time for Steve to go, because I watched that side, and there doesn’t seem to be trust between the players and the coaching staff. There doesn’t seem to be a style of play that you can hang your hat on. They don’t go out and attack; there’s no pace.”
Is Borthwick’s job under threat?
Not in the immediate term, no. The RFU statement issued on Sunday said the governing body remains “fully committed to supporting” the coaches and players ahead of France and through the Nations Championship. So with France, South Africa, Fiji and Argentina up ahead, that’s effectively giving Borthwick a four-match spell to turn things around. It’s not an easy task.
Between South Africa on July 4 in Johannesburg, Fiji in Liverpool a week later and Argentina in Santiago del Estero, that’s 25,000 miles worth of flying — a three-week odyssey starting with an opening match at altitude against the reigning double World Cup champions.
In his statement, Sweeney said they’ll collectively work on getting clarity over why this championship hasn’t gone to plan and “[they] will work together to understand and rectify why we have been unable to meet the expectations and anticipation going into these games.” He’s challenged England to “grow through adversity.” So that’s the task for Borthwick and his team.
Are there reasons for optimism?
Rugby’s cyclical and England will rise again, but this is an alarming spell. They badly miss the front-row reinforcements of Stuart, Baxter and Opoku-Fordjour, though their best player this championship has been tight-head Joe Heyes.
Feyi-Waboso’s return will bring fresh impetus on the wing, but you feel Borthwick needs to find his best team and stick with it. Seb Atkinson looks to be the right man at No.12, even though he had a tricky time on Saturday finding the same wavelength as Fin Smith. Fullback remains a problem but with George Furbank nearing full-fitness, he’ll likely become first-choice at No.15. Henry Pollock is getting vital Test experience in the back-row, while England also have George Martin making his way back from injury to give some real ballast to the locks. A trio of Martin, Itoje and Ollie Chessum across 4, 5 and 6 is not be sniffed at.
It wasn’t so long ago that England’s fans were optimistic. Borthwick cares deeply about this team and though he isn’t always to the public’s liking, you won’t find anyone who will work harder than him to right this poor spell. But he needs results, and fast.
Will this be England’s worst ever Six Nations?
It’s hard to argue otherwise. England have never suffered four defeats in a single championship and following their meek trio of performances, it’s hard to see how they’ll magic a win in Paris on Saturday to right the ship.
France fell in that 90-point epic at Murrayfield but are still chasing the Six Nations title. England will have to pick themselves off the canvas if they are to somehow land a knockout blow. Some of the team look mentally exhausted and need a break, but there’s no chance for rest in this championship. Somehow, they need to re-find that mindset which guided them to 12 wins on the bounce, but they look short on confidence, precision and ideas.
