PARIS, France — Jamie George has backed head coach Steve Borthwick and his staff to continue coaching the team into the 2027 Rugby World Cup after England fell to their worst-ever return in the Six Nations.
England finished up their 2026 championship with a 48-46 defeat to France in Paris, with Les Bleus winning it with the final kick of the match. England’s performance was a marked step up from what we’d seen in their previous three games, where they lost to Scotland, Ireland and Italy.
The France loss left England with four defeats to their name, their worst record in Six Nations history and kept the pressure on Borthwick and whether the RFU backs him to continue leading the side.
The RFU issued a statement after the Italy defeat effectively saying Borthwick had until the end of the Nations Championship to turn things around, and though they lost in Paris, the performance showed widespread improvement.
George has been playing for England since 2015, and has experienced pretty much every emotion in the shirt. And he says now is the time for calm, and insists England have the right setup to lead this team forward.
“Steve is one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked under and under Steve I think we will be right up there with the favourites to win the World Cup in 2027,” George said. “We’re a great team, a great group of players and he’s the perfect person to take us there.
“I think he has been unbelievable for English rugby, I think it’s crazy what has been happening over the last few weeks and he is absolutely the right man to lead us forward for a long time. Because he’s an English coach who cares so much about this game but he’s also a very, very good coach who has created an excellent programme.
“When you combine that with a good group of players it’s a recipe for success. It hasn’t been where it has needed to be over the last few weeks, the excellent thing about Steve is that we will have answers, we will have clarity to make sure it doesn’t happen again and we will be trained and put in positions to make sure we are comfortable that that doesn’t translate on to the field again.”
The RFU will now carry out its customary post-tournament review, and George hopes this group of coaches will be allowed to continue into a summer schedule where England face South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.
“It’s an excellent programme as a whole,” George said. “Honestly, the togetherness and how tight we have been over this period of time is the biggest indicator that the right people are in the room, players, staff, whoever.
“Not many other teams would go out and perform like that under that sort of pressure, those high pressure environments and been as together as we have, it’s a clear indicator, that every single person, coach, player and Steve are in the right place.”
Sam Underhill also said the players have full belief in Borthwick. “You’re either all in, or you’re not, you know,” Underhill said.
“That’s true of every environment I’ve been in. There are always external opinions, but ultimately the only people in the room are the coaches and the players.
“No-one from the outside is coming in. I haven’t seen anyone with an external opinion that’s in a position of consequence. Not to be flippant about it, but the only people that are going to contribute to this group are in this group. So for me, [we] 100% [have full belief in Borthwick].”
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But looking back over the campaign, George said England’s lack of discipline remains a major issue after they picked up nine yellow cards through the tournament, and though he says England can take heart from that showing in Paris, they can’t ignore their poor return overall.
“I think that we should be proud of that performance, but I am not shying away from the fact that one in five is not good enough. That is not good enough for an England team that have got a huge amount of talent,” George said.
“The players need to take responsibility for that. Because what we put out on the field in a couple of games in particular wasn’t good enough. Look, [in Paris] we threw everything at it. We played against a very good France team, and on another day we might have won that game.
“We didn’t get results and it’s a results based business. And we are very, very frustrated with that. But I am hoping that we’ve given a lot of England fans a smile on their faces [after Paris], which is ultimately what it’s all about. And put a lot of pride back into the shirt.
“I think that there should be a huge amount of excitement leading into the summer. It’s a pretty big test next up. But hopefully a couple of English teams are going to do pretty well in this Champions Cup, finish the season strong. And then we lead into South Africa, which will be a huge test for us.”
