England boss buoyed by Premiership statistics as he prepares for unknown Italy threat

England head coach Steve Borthwick believes his players are “battle hardened” from their exploits at club level, more so than any other team in this year’s Six Nations.

According to the data, the Red Rose squad has accrued the highest number of minutes played since the World Cup due to their Premiership and European commitments.

Borthwick views that as a positive ahead of the Championship as he praised how the clubs have performed in both the Investec Champions Cup and on the domestic front.

Ready to go

“The players are match-hardened, so that’s a great benefit. Generally I will try to look at the positive side and I have a group of players that are match hardened. They are ready to go,” he said.

“The other thing is the nature of the Premiership. All of the games are counting, so the leverage of all these games is huge.

“And there have been teams fighting in Europe to get qualification, fighting to find a way to win which, again, is a real positive.

“Everything we’re getting is saying all the clubs are running more than they were 12 months ago, so that’s a real positive.”

While they are up to speed with the expansive aspect of elite rugby, Borthwick did fire a warning to his team that they must front up at the breakdown at Test level.

“The Six Nations is a real contest. It’s a breakdown contest game so we need to ensure that we’ve got that running right as well as the level of repeatability around the contact area,” said the head coach.

“We are going to improve as a rugby team. We will get tactically and technically better, and we will get fitter.

“The supporters also need to see that this team fights all the time, is competitive all the time and plays at the intensity required in an England team.

“That is the base standard, and if you have that, you can add the technical and tactical elements that will then follow.”

First up for England in the Six Nations is a visit to Italy, who will be under the tutelage of Gonzalo Quesada with Kieran Crowley leaving after the Rugby World Cup.

Borthwick expects some tweaks to the Azzurri game with the Argentine at the helm and believes Italy could become more forward-dominated under their new boss.

Different style

“Under Kieran Crowley, Italy played a phased attack game,” he said.

“They beat Australia, pushed South Africa, beat Wales in Cardiff and in the first game of the Championship last year they went very close to beating France. This is a very dangerous team.

“Quesada played a very different style to that at the Jaguares and at Stade Francais, much more of a blend of forward dominance with competitive kicking, lower phase count.

“They are two contrasting styles so the interesting question for Italy is what can they put together in that first game? We’ll have to be ready to recognise what style they are bringing very early in the game.”

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