How England plan to quieten the boo boys and make Twickenham ‘erupt’

England full-back Freddie Stewards admits that it is up to the squad to provide the excitement on the field as they continue preparations for their next Test against Wales.

The Red Rose were among the best teams in the game between 2016 and 2020, winning three Six Nations titles and reaching the 2019 Rugby World Cup final.

However, they suffered a gradual decline following their defeat to South Africa in Japan and it culminated in Eddie Jones being sacked in December 2022.

Results and game plan

Results were abysmal while the style of play was even worse, with watching England becoming a chore for some supporters.

Boos rang out after their loss to Argentina in the 2022 end-of-year series before other reversals to France and Fiji saw them receive similar treatment.

And Steward insists that it is the players’ “responsibility” to get the fans onside when they take on Wales in the Six Nations, which is their first home match since they succumbed to the Flying Fijians last August.

“We have spoken about that as a team, how do we make Twickenham a place where we can be our best and make it a difficult place to come,” the full-back said.

“We are fortunate we have got an incredible set of fans and they play a part in it. Us being back at home is also synonymous with us being a new group. This is essentially a fresh start.

“We have had our World Cup and we are on the start of a new cycle with fresh faces, new coaches and this is our chance to draw a line in the sand.

“As players when you play for England you are expected to win and when you don’t win, understandably you don’t have the fans on your side and there was a bit of that in the warm-ups.

“During the World Cup when we got to the semi-final it felt like that is what it can be like. As players we want that all the time but we have to put the performances on the field to earn that.

“They are the heartbeat of what we do. We want Twickenham to erupt and we want it to be a place we want to go and play in front of our fans and represent them.

“I would never blame the fans, and say they need to lift [the players]. They do that on the back of what we do, so the responsibility is ours.”

Change in approach

New head coach Steve Borthwick had very little preparation ahead of the World Cup and duly opted for a limited game plan.

It paid dividends as they reached the semi-finals, with only a narrow loss to eventual champions the Springboks denying England a place in the showpiece event.

There were concerns that Borthwick would continue with that approach, given his penchant for the set-piece, but they were certainly more expansive against Italy.

“There’s the mentality side of it in terms of being braver by attacking further from the line and trying to challenge the opposition, giving them something to think about,” Steward added.

“We were probably guilty early doors of being too one-dimensional in terms of teams knowing what we were going to do.

“But hopefully by evolving the attack it will ask a few more questions of the opposition. The more time we’ve had together, it helps.

“For us as players, we want to play winning rugby. Whatever style that is, we want to win Test matches, we want to win tournaments and have successful campaigns.”

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