5 days Ago By Tom Ward
In painful times for England , with three losses out of three at Twickenham this month, Steve Borthwick must envy his opposite number Rassie Erasmus . If only “Borthers” could be a little more “Rassie”, as the English rugby public look to the boss man for hope of a revival. With England ranked seventh, just one place higher than their lowest-ever position after the latest setback of Saturday’s 29-20 defeat to South Africa , the opportunity to opine from on high is not going to happen any time soon.
But it would be handy for Borthwick to shed more light on what’s going on, after four wins in 11 matches across the calendar year. Erasmus, the lion king in the Test jungle right now, is good at it, even as a South African to whom English is a second language – whether it’s in the two series of the Springboks documentary Chasing the Sun , or in midweek or post-match press conferences. Read Next The uncomfortable England question after South Africa loss sums up their autumn On Saturday, he didn’t mind stating how fly-half Manie Libbok had given a mixed performance.
With Borthwick, it is more difficult to grab hold of anything definitive. Even if you are of a mind to cut him slack that his team has not been obliterated by anyone this year, they were a missed goal kick and one restart catch away from beating New Zealand and Australia this month, and they got themselves in a realistic position to beat the No 1-ranked South Africans. The reticence could reflect Borthwick’s lack of experience in charge, as he has been a head coach only since 2020.
Perhaps he is not keen to upset players, with English rugby facing an existential financial challenge. Maybe he is just the circle-the-wagons type who sees no use in sharing in-depth insights outside the team bubble. Erasmus recently built bridges with the British media with a fairly wide-ranging chat in the Boks’ training camp in Jersey, although a team official cut him short.
And the testimony from the Springboks players (the ones still in the squad, at least) is how Erasmus gives them all a voice, even while he is the undoubted tactical muse and innovator. Where England go next in the short term is to finish their autumn with a win, surely, over Japan at Twickenham this Sunday afternoon. The Japanese are at a very low ebb under Eddie Jones , but England’s lack of confidence and wins means Borthwick could go strong in his selection, rather than try a load of new faces.
Flanker Tom Curry and wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso should be available again after injury. Borthwick may fancy a brimful of Asher, as on Sunday afternoon he attended the England A team’s 38-17 win over an Australia XV at the Stoop, and one of the eye-catching players was the only one released from the senior squad to play: Asher Opoku-Fordjour, who had 43 minutes as the loosehead prop. Read Next England’s superpower is they keep finding new ways to lose rugby matches The 20-year-old from Sale Sharks coughed up a turnover with his first carry but he scrummaged well and is seen by Borthwick as an answer to the question of Joe Marler and, inevitably one day soon, Dan Cole moving on.
Among other A players, Saracens’ No 8 Tom Willis could give England the reassurance of consistently playing that position and the type of go-forward Jasper Wiese provides to South Africa. Bristol’s Gabriel Ibitoye on the wing, the centre Oscar Beard and flanker Henry Pollock are also pushing – but, as the A team’s coach Mark Mapletoft observed afterwards, there are already 36 players in the senior squad. If Borthwick reckons, for instance, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Sleightholme and Tom Roebuck are the England wings of the immediate future, he isn’t likely to swap them out at this juncture.
Erasmus has used 50 players in Tests this year, which means he has strength in depth. By comparison, Borthwick is managing a transition partly forced on him by retirements and injuries and players off limits at French clubs – 13 of the 23 men of who faced South Africa in the World Cup semi-final 13 months ago were not around on Saturday. In all the media analysis of Saturday’s defeat, there was a diversity of views: “it’s the players, not the coaches”, “it’s Borthwick, not the players”, “it’s the defence, not the attack”, “it’s the attack not working because Marcus Smith doesn’t play flat”, “it’s the centres not reading Smith”, “it’s a dearth of world-class players”.
.. Recalled full-back Freddie Steward stuck up for Borthwick, and took blame on the players.
“He [Borthwick] is an unbelievable coach and rugby player,” Steward said. “He has a great rugby brain, is an unbelievable motivator, man manager, and as players we believe in everything he’s bringing to this team. “We put ourselves in a position to win that game, and probably were at 50, 60 minutes, we were ahead, and again we didn’t see it out.
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