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England: Steve Borthwick knows it will take time to stamp his style on his team

Although he is keen to unleash his players’ potential, new England boss Steve Borthwick has admitted his side will not be at their best for their Six Nations opener against Scotland at Twickenham in February.

The former Leicester Tigers director of rugby took over England’s coaching reins from Eddie Jones earlier this week after agreeing terms on a five-year contract with the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

Borthwick will have to hit the ground running as the Six Nations kicks off in six weeks’ time and the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France begins in September.

Confident of turning things around

And after a poor run in 2022 where England lost six of their 12 internationals, Borthwick believes he can bring back the glory days to the Red Rose.

“There’s a lot of potential in the players we have and I want to produce a team that delivers, so I’m going to devote myself wholeheartedly to try to help this team deliver and be a team that we can all be proud of,” he insisted.

“Ultimately on that first game of the Six Nations are we going to be perfect? No. Is it going to be exactly how the team is going to play? No. It is going to be the start but what is absolutely clear is the team needs to go out there, and it needs to fight.

“It needs to compete so when they walk out, I want this crowd roaring. I want that Twickenham roar. Our job is to play in a manner, fight in a manner and compete in a manner that keeps them roaring.”

Since turning around the Tigers’ fortunes, Borthwick was viewed as the favourite to replace Jones, but the RFU brought him in earlier than expected due to England’s underwhelming performances during the past year, which saw them suffering humiliating losses to Argentina and Scotland.

He is keen to be his own man but will use the experiences he shared with Jones after working with his predecessor for an eight-year period across coaching stints at Japan and England.

The 45-year-old used an example of Jones’ clarity during England’s 2019 World Cup campaign while speaking at Twickenham this week.

“Eddie walked in and said ‘we’re playing New Zealand (in the semi-finals) on Saturday. All we need to do is one, two, three,’” Borthwick recalled while banging on the table three times.

“He said, ‘If we do one, two, three, we will win this weekend. We have got to get the detail right of doing one, two, three, but that’s what we have to do,’ and you could see it in everybody.

“The clarity in the room presented to the coaches and the players of doing one, two, three and that clarity of plan, that was one incredible circumstance.”

Borthwick, who guided Leicester to the 2021/22 Premiership title, will try to bring similar clarity when he works with England’s players for the first time at a training camp at the start of January.

Joining Borthwick at England is ex-rugby league stalwart Kevin Sinfield, who has been appointed as the Red Rose’s defence coach, which raises question marks over the future of Brett Hodgson, who was hired last month for the same position.

Borthwick’s main duty for the short-term will be to sort out his backroom staff and then try to put together a Six Nations squad but he believes the door is open for all having worked in the Premiership for the past three seasons.

Concentrating on the future

“I’m not looking in the rear view mirror too much about what was done previously,” he added. “I’m concentrating on what’s going to be done and looking at every player to say there’s opportunity.

“The last two-and-a-half years has been an opportunity for me to sit in the chair of a head coach at club level and see the challenges, understand them and to get to know the other coaches.

“I think the coaching around the league is of a really high standard. It’s very, very competitive, so the players right now are going to be playing a very competitive competition.

“My job is to bring the players together as quickly as possible, to be really clear on how we’re going to play and what those top priorities are that we’re going to focus on going into that first game because that first game matters. Every game matters.”

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