Ex-England international calls for Steve Borthwick’s and four players’ heads

Ex-England fly-half Andy Goode thinks that Steve Borthwick and “some of his assistants” should not remain in charge beyond the 2024 Six Nations.

Goode was highly critical of England’s performance on Saturday as they suffered a fourth successive Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland and has called for action.

It was a tough evening for the Red Rose as Scotland winger Duhan van der Merwe crossed for three tries, with Finn Russell knocking over all six of his shots at goal for a personal haul of 15 in the 30-21 victory.

The performance left Goode furious as he shared his frustrations on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Goode fumes

The 43-year-old insists England are far behind Ireland, who he believes are setting the benchmark in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Big mindset shift needed for England, some players and coaches aren’t aligned with how the game is and should be played, Ireland are the northern hemisphere barometer,” the 17-Test cap former fly-half wrote.

“England are miles behind but have players to evolve, the problem is the mindset and coaching, too risk adverse.”

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Goode also called out an experienced quartet of players in the squad, who have been regulars since the 2019 Rugby World Cup, namely Joe Marler, Dan Cole, George Ford, and Elliot Daly, before turning his attention to the coaches.

“There’s a fair few payers [sic] that Steve Borthwick needs to move on if we are going to evolve, Marler, Cole, Ford, Daly to name a few, we’ve been bang average at best since the 2019 World Cup semi final, I actually don’t think Borewick [sic] and some of his assistant coaches should stay,” he added.

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England behind Ireland, Scotland and France

His comments came off the back of England’s first loss in the 2024 Six Nations after Borthwick’s side defeated Italy and Wales in their opening two encounters.

Goode piled on the criticism after the match with another post, which read: “Congrats to Scotland, probably should have won by more than 9 points, big questions around what identity England have and want to look like, we are so far behind Ireland, Scotland and France again.”

England now have a week to regroup before they return for the penultimate weekend of action as they host Ireland, who are still in the running for back-to-back Grand Slams, at Twickenham Stadium.

Their Championship concludes when France head to the home of English Rugby for Le Crunch on Super Saturday.

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