Five urgent fixes for Steve Borthwick’s England ahead of the Rugby World Cup

After suffering a humiliating 20-9 defeat to Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Planet Rugby’s James While examines the emerging issues with England and Steve Borthwick.

Negative reaction

Today’s brief from Planet Rugby Towers was to write a piece on the five English players who’d furthered their cause in Cardiff on Saturday, but such was the manner of the defeat that we felt it almost impossible to find any sort of solace in the turmoil that unfolded down at the Principality and even tougher to find any player, with the possible exceptions of Joe Marchant and Lewis Ludlam, that had shown anything near to a form of improvement.

Since Borthwick and his coaching team assembled for the first time on January 27 in Gloucester, the press have been treated to such lines as ‘we weren’t good at anything’ or ‘we have to fix the mess’ and so on. However, the simple truth is that the side Borthwick inherited had won 2-1 in Australia six months prior to his appointment, had drawn with New Zealand and also had given France the scare of their lives for 55 minutes in Paris as they sought a Grand Slam.

To suggest that a side that had put in these performances ‘weren’t good at anything’ is particularly disingenuous. For those of an age who can recall the brilliant British TV sitcom ‘Yes Minister’ it rather smacks of Prime Minister Jim Hacker’s press strategy of ‘create a problem on Monday and announce to the world you’ve solved your own problem on Tuesday’.

Could anyone imagine an Eddie Jones coached side shipping 50-odd against France at home? Or losing the game against an experimental side on Saturday in Cardiff without firing an attacking shot?

Borthwick’s comments in the press conference post-match when he suggested some parts of England’s game had improved can only refer to his own side’s previous performances, not those of the team he inherited. Yesterday we saw a scrum destroyed, a lineout dismantled, an attack suffocated and a defence picked apart, none of which alludes to any form of improvement whatsoever. The only saving grace was this team was as close to a scratch side as you’ll get at Test level.

Borthwick’s style is about honesty and clarity – and that starts with being wholly honest about the current state of English rugby under his tenure – and the truth is he has a 25% win rate against solely Six Nations opposition – something that even Italy would be disappointed about.

Identity crisis

Part of this appears to be a form of identity crisis. In Cardiff, many welcomed the selection of the Harlequins pairing of Danny Care and Marcus Smith at half-back, and certainly Smith enjoyed some lovely moments in the first half in attack. But to use these two Premiership magicians to deliver a game plan that seemed to be based solely upon a pod of three forwards on the shoulder of the half-backs running into contact off pop passes is a complete waste of their talents and a hopeless miss-deployment of their superpowers – which are all about intuitive running at retreating defences.

Smith needs a unit at inside centre to break that defence down running from deep in the 12 channel and Care needs to play the game in his mind, not the mind of his coach by proxy. To put these talented players into a structure that simply doesn’t suit them is an absolute discredit to their undoubted skillsets. Care in particular looked like a man playing in shackles, forced to unload wobbling short-range passes to flabby forwards falling into contact. This isn’t the Care-Smith way and it’s certainly no way to unlock a Test match defence.

Borthwick said after the match that he was pleased with some elements of England’s attack; sure, there were two or three moments when Smith and Marchant combined to break the Welsh primarily down the left flank, but zero points from eight minutes in the Welsh 22 and 20 unforced handling errors tells you a lot about the identity crisis England are suffering from, where players are picked for their Premiership deeds and then are asked to deliver a wholly different game plan.

Short fuse

The press spend a lot of time within the England camp and sometimes there’s a feel of a mood swing, a change in narrative, a clear conflict of emotion.

Borthwick is a player’s coach in so far as he treats his team as he himself might have wanted to have been treated during his career. Open conversations and clarity of selection is the order of the day, all designed to remove conflict and stress from his charges.

But is that a good thing?

The best leaders are liked but are also feared. They lead by sheer respect, demanded by the ability to make tough decisions but also, rather crucially, the ability to navigate past even tougher situations. Right now, it all looks a little cosy. Conflict in a team environment can be a good thing – Martin Johnson always said he knew when Leicester or England were really up for it because of the intensity of training, often with formidable scraps emerging between the players.

Now whilst there is a balance it all appears a little cosy at Club England right now. Are the players being taken so far out of their comfort zone that they’re being forced to adapt to pressure? Do they fear, respect and like the coaching staff in equal measure? From the outside there’s no clear answer to this question but it’s clear that Borthwick and his staff do everything to avoid conflict from within, which is a somewhat questionable strategy in elite sport.

A real example of this cosiness is the omission of two players that on their best form could get into any test squad in the world – Val Rapava-Ruskin and Zach Mercer, guys that simply ooze the game changing ability and physical conflict that’s been so clearly missing from England this year.

🥳 Happy birthday to the talented number eight Zach Mercer.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England's present on his 26th? A killer watt bike session… pic.twitter.com/CIvRHmFT12

— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) June 28, 2023

Both men are said to be challenging characters within the team construct, with Rapava-Ruskin believed to have quite a short fuse over things he disagrees with, but a great coach harnesses personalities like this, in the same way Ian McGeechan got the best out of the likes of hugely abrasive characters like Jeremy Guscott and John Bentley.

It’s about embracing difference, nurturing conflict and creating players that fulfil their huge potential and it’s clear that in the case of Mercer and Rapava-Ruskin, he’s walked away from their talents more so due to concerns about the coaching staff’s ability to deal with potential behavioural downside over the absolute reality of much needed game-changing brilliance.

Dead weight

Looking forward, England have three matches to stop the rot and one of their key considerations given the squad announcement on Monday morning is to play his Test side together as much as possible.

They need wins, they need to fix systems and structures and they need game time. It’s a fool’s errand to suggest that ‘combinations need to be examined’ if, as Borthwick mentioned on Saturday night, that he’s pretty sure he knows what his Test 23 is.

To use fringe players yesterday helped no one. Sure, it was nice for a couple of players to get debuts and so on, but as some of those won’t be near the squad, their deployment yesterday meant that they were dead wood in terms of the World Cup campaign.

Chris Robshaw wrote on Wednesday that the squad needs to be fully fit – not 98% or 99% fit, but absolutely at the top of their physical peak – and the best way of doing that is test match time, pure and simple.

If the 23 are fixed, then exploring combinations is futile; use the players you have, learn structures, learn tactics and get some wins on the board – it really is that simple.

Troubled waters

English rugby is in absolute crisis and to deny that Saturday’s loss added to that sense of chaos is deluded. The game is burning in front of the authorities yet the very organisation that’s overseen the decimation of the Premiership game is the owner of the national brand the players are representing.

Can all of those players say, hand on heart, that they fully believe in the England Rugby brand that they are undoubtedly proud to try and represent? Surely there has to be some form of suspicion over some of the shenanigans that have taken place this season with colleagues losing jobs and clubs going bust- and, if that is the case, is that starting to manifest itself into confusion on the pitch?

The simple truth is England can no longer claim ‘rebuilding’ processes. They cannot ‘look to select players for the future’ and they no longer have the luxury of ‘exploring combinations’.

What’s needed is a back to basics approach- one where firm and direct player management takes place and one where that management embraces the points of difference that some of the more confrontational yet immensely talented players can bring. Right here and now there’s a serious concern that England may fail to get out of their group and the only way they can assuage those fears is a minimum of two wins from the next two games, however ugly those wins may be. Character is needed and an ability to drag a side through to victory at all costs is a quality that Borthwick must find within.

With the likes Argentina, Samoa and Japan all arguably more physical and more mature than this current England side, the task of qualification is absolutely huge and the next three weeks of warm ups ahead might very well make or break the fortunes of Borthwick’s Class of 2023.

READ MORE: Wales keep England try-less in dour Rugby World Cup warm-up victory