England: Ex-player explains why Steve Borthwick ‘has to go’ and why they should make ‘someone who has got the balls’ their new captain
England boss Steve Borthwick and, inset, rookie forward Henry Pollock
Former England out-half Stuart Barnes has repeated his call for Steve Borthwick to be replaced and doubled down on his claim that rookie Henry Pollock should also be made the captain.
Last Saturday’s 45-21 setback away to South Africa in Johannesburg was a fifth defeat in a row for Borthwick’s strugglers and Barnes, who called for the head coach to be dismissed following their Six Nations loss to Italy in March, insisted that a change must be made if the current losing streak extends to six with a Nations Championship loss to Fiji in Liverpool.
The retired half-back also explained why he wants Pollock, a rookie back-rower who has only started one match at Test level, to be made skipper of a team he believes is stuck in the mud and going nowhere.
Appearing on The Ruck podcast, Barnes suggested that ex-Australia and Argentina boss Michael Cheika was a ready-made successor for Borthwick who would be capable of firing things and generating greater optimism about England’s 2027 Rugby World Cup prospects.
“That concerns me…”
Speaking about Borthwick’s situation, Barnes said: “He has to go if they lose to Fiji. It is about performance for England at the moment, not the result, but that’s a result they can’t get away with. That would be six straight defeats and Fiji, for all their brilliance, would be perceived as one England should not be losing to.
“I said before they played France (after the Italy loss), I threw my hat in the ring the day before the game. I said England should have got rid of Borthwick; I said they should have selected Michael Cheika to do a one-year radical job to get them going and that’s where the idea about Pollock comes from. Somebody who can just ignite them.
“Cheika can. Steve Borthwick is a thinking man, and he goes through his statistics, but is he going to ignite England between now and Australia to the point where they suddenly look like a team that could be contenders?
“That is what the RFU expect of their head coach, someone who can make sure they are contenders at the very least come this four-year jamboree called the World Cup.”
Looking ahead to the round two Nations Championship clash at the new Everton stadium, Barnes suggested that England would smash Fiji with a 10-man rugby approach but added that this style would serve no developmental purpose other than keep Borthwick in his role.
“At the moment I feel England selection is more geared towards what the management feel and what they feel is right for the players and that concerns me,” he said. “England cannot be under pressure to win because they have to have a power and they do have a power with a pack to take Fiji to the cleaners should they so wish.
“So there is no pressure on Borthwick if winning is all that matters because England can do that; they can play 10-man rugby, but that will take them nowhere; that will take them absolutely nowhere.
“There is pressure if they try and say how do we evolve our game because that plays a little bit into Fiji’s hands, but that is what they have got to do. That is where the pressure comes on England to win, but I cannot believe England don’t have the overall power and strength in depth to go 80 minutes with 23 men and beat Fiji.
“Fiji are a team that play in glorious glimpses and that doesn’t beat the big guns. The big question now is, are England a big gun? They have lost five on the trot.
“But they can’t go five straight defeats; therefore what we must do is play 10-man rugby, squeeze Fiji and win because that is 80 minutes of England’s preparation for the next World Cup, for the development of the team overall, utterly and completely wasted. They have to do more than just be negative.”
Barnes suggested a midfield change-up is one of the actions England must take. “You look at the back line, and Seb Atkinson is not doing at international level what he does at club level. He doesn’t have quite the power; I don’t think he has got quite the skill set.
“You play Max Ojomoh, you bring in Benhard Janse van Rensburg and you suddenly have got two centres who England have lacked, the capacity to create, to get behind the defence, to offload passes, to almost be a little bit Fijian and there has to be something different.
“If England don’t look for that, then they carry on in the same mindset that they took to Johannesburg and they are just going to keep losing and if they are going to keep losing, then England might as well come up with a statement and say we are going to be like Wales.
“We are just going to try to win the odd game and get ourselves on an even keel – and the English public won’t accept that. England have to radically change what they are doing because the English way, the Borthwick way, doesn’t work, and this is the time for England to have some courage.”
That courage, Barnes insisted, included thinking outside the box and selecting the eccentric Pollock as their new captain. “I am sure everyone is thinking I have lost the plot, but when I was writing (for The Times), I was halfway through a column and I thought if they are not prepared to be fresh in terms of changing the management, which I think they should have done, then you have got to change personnel.
“I thought, what better time to make a 21-year-old like Henry Pollock captain to just galvanise them. Everyone is laughing at it, but this is an England team just wading through metaphorical mud and you need someone who has got the balls to say I don’t care, I am going to go and do something.
“I am sure it is not going to happen, but that is the sort of mindset that England should be adopting, and they are nowhere near that at the moment. They are just in a fearful place.”
Barnes was reminded on the podcast that he had previously unsuccessfully called for Danny Cipriani, another eccentric character, to be made England captain. “Well, where did England go without him? He kept Eddie Jones in a job in Cape Town when he played quite beautifully (in 2018), but Danny Cipriani spoke his mind and this is an era where people who speak their mind to coaches, watch out, you’ll struggle.”
Asked why Pollock should take charge despite his inexperience, Barnes harked back to his international playing days in the 1990s. “In my playing days they gave Will Carling the captaincy and he had no experience, and he was young.
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“Pollock has probably got more experience of pressurised rugby, European and Premiership finals. What he does, if you think back this season, 82,000 at Twickenham (in the PREM final), playing Leicester in the East Midlands semi-final, the bigger the game the better he played.
“At some stage England are going to have to be bold. Of course, I am well aware that he hasn’t played that much, but I am also aware that the ones that have played that much have been playing that much under coaches that have stifled them, that have taken a lot of the joy – there is not a lot of smiling in England.
“So do you want a captain like Jamie George who is experienced and knows what the coach wants, or do you want someone who can just say, look, we’re in third gear, let’s have a go, let’s try and crank it up into fifth gear and see where we go because England are stalling, they’re spluttering.”
