Rassie Erasmus’ ‘jump out of their cars’ warning over Steve Borthwick and the key questions that need answering by England
England head coach Steve Borthwick is given support by Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus.
Steve Borthwick heads into what many see as his date with destiny on Saturday, with coaching rival Rassie Erasmus cautioning against panic over England’s sudden and alarming dip in form.
Defeat in Rome would be England’s first-ever loss to Italy and following dismal defeats against Scotland and Ireland would put their head coach firmly in the cross hairs of fans and critics alike.
It is in the interest of Erasmus for England‘s slide to continue given they are South Africa‘s next opponents, in the Nations Championship opener at Ellis Park on July 4.
Call for calm
But he empathises with his Red Rose counterpart and feels it would be premature for the Rugby Football Union to turn on a man with 12 wins from his last 14 Tests.
“Borthwick thinks like a machine… in a good way,” said the Springboks boss. “A coach that works so hard and works every single thing and then wins 10 [sic] on the trot.
“I don’t think people should jump out of their cars because they lost a few games. It’s happened to every team in the world. As a player I was on teams who lost 62-0 and we had a great coach.
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“England smashed New Zealand last year, beat Argentina away and I was thinking are these guys really on a good run? You might see some cracks in there but what do we know? We’re not part of that.
“I guess the question will now be can they turn it around? Is the structure good enough to handle these losses? Is our defensive pattern good enough to handle these losses?
“Are you this close to being fired or are the players really tight? Not England, but any team in that position. They will either show it or not show it on Saturday.”
Pressure builds
Erasmus acknowledges that social media shines an ever-harsher spotlight on the business of coaching.
“If there wasn’t social media the word wouldn’t get so quickly to the board members or the president,” he said. “The pressure builds pretty quickly, especially when you’ve built up expectations from people. The emotional drop after that normally buggers up everything.”
Asked if England can turn around their fortunes quickly, with Six Nations away games in Italy and France in the next eight days, he laughed: “I hope not!
“I hope they don’t but I know they can. I hope they get it back but they’re not good in July. England has beaten me a lot of times. There’s good history there.”
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