Coaching in international rugby can be a lonely old world at the best of times, so when you’re losing, that feeling is only exacerbated 10 times over.
There are very few people you can talk to about the pressure you’re feeling. You can be loathe to ask for advice because as the boss, you’re supposed to be the doyen and the fount of all knowledge within the team.
It can be very, very tough. This is the position Steve Borthwick will be in right now after suffering his fifth straight loss as England coach. I’ve been there.
In 2022, I was sacked from that position by the RFU after winning five of 12 games that year and Steve took over. At that time, I lived near the team’s Pennyhill Park training base. When we were struggling to win games, I’d go shopping at the Bagshot Waitrose nearby and people would look at me like I’d committed some form of offence.
Their expressions said everything. They didn’t have ‘that guy is under pressure’ written across their forehead, but they may as well have done.
That’s what comes with coaching England. The nation expects its top sports teams to win and when that doesn’t happen, the coach cops the flak. That’s where Steve is now after the 45-21 defeat by South Africa which came on the back of the worst Six Nations in England’s history.
England head coach Steve Borthwick endured another difficult day at Ellis Park on Saturday
England were up against it facing game-changers like Cheslin Kolbe, right, for the Boks
Kurt-Lee Arendse was another try scorer who gave England no end of problems on Saturday
He’s got to refocus and quickly to stay on track. There’ll be a lot of media noise and pressure to win against Fiji this weekend. But much of the criticism won’t be helpful, so the key is to stick to his key, underlying coaching principles. That’s all you can really do as the man in charge.
I do believe Steve can get his team back to winning ways, but there is work to be done to do that because I don’t think England yet have the talent to be one of the top three teams in the world. Right now, they can certainly be a top-six side with the players they have. But to make the next step and be considered genuine World Cup contenders, I think they need to not only unearth some new gems, but also significantly improve their attack. That was shown by their Johannesburg defeat.
It’s no disgrace to lose to this South African team. They’re back-to-back World Cup winners for a reason and by far the best side on the planet. Facing them at Ellis Park is as tough as it gets. England did well to recover from 17-0 down, but their attack was so predictable. Again.
Right now, England are what I call a ‘carry and clean’ team. By that, I mean it’s very easy to see who the ball carrier is. There isn’t much deception that can confuse the opposition defence.
Secondly, the supporting players are totally focused on cleaning the ruck. They don’t look for an offload or pass. It’s a touch one-dimensional and is a game plan that relies on power and physicality. That’s not enough to beat South Africa who can’t be dominated in those areas as other teams can.
England can’t find new players in the space of a week and time is against them to improve their attack in the rest of the Nations Championship, so there is no easy solution to the team’s ills.
Test rugby now is attack driven. To be successful you have to score points and be incredibly efficient in the opposition 22. That much was shown by the first round of the international game’s new competition at the weekend.
Across the six matches in the Nations Championship, there were 381 points scored at an average of 64. New Zealand against France, Australia against Ireland and Argentina against Scotland were all games with plenty of tries. A 27-10 win for my Japan team over Italy – a result which I was very pleased with by the way – was by far the lowest-scoring of the opening round.
England have to get up to speed and quickly with the latest trend. But an attacking fix isn’t going to be easy for them because generally, the country’s rugby model is very organised and methodical. English players do lack a feel for the ball-playing side of the game. I know that having coached them.
Throughout history, their teams are strong at the set-piece and have a good kicking game. Over the years, England have had very few players who can pull a rabbit from a hat and create a try out of nothing.
How Steve Borthwick could do with the likes of Jack Willis, but he can’t pick him at the moment because he plays in France with Toulouse
‘Who can be England’s modern-day Robinson? I think Henry Arundell is one. I’m not sure why he’s not in the team,’ says Eddie Jones
Jason Robinson was one of those – an X Factor guy who came from rugby league. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only English team to win a World Cup had Robinson in it. No-one could stop his electric footwork and he added to a team full of world-class, methodical players like Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson and others.
Who can be England’s modern-day Robinson? I think Henry Arundell is one. I’m not sure why he’s not in the team, but he’s shown he can produce moments of magic out of nothing. He is unpredictable. That’s what England need. Another player would be Jack Willis, but Steve can’t pick him at the moment because he plays in France with Toulouse.
As I wrote in my first Daily Mail Sport column, I think the RFU rule on not picking players based abroad is archaic and should be scrapped. Willis would certainly enhance this England team.
Noah Caluori, the uncapped Saracens wing, is another one who could provide England with a je ne sais quoi, but it’s a lot to ask of a young kid if you’re looking to him to be the one to turn things around. That said, Fiji could be a brilliant game for him to make his debut.
The first 15 minutes in South Africa went as I expected. The Springboks flew out of the traps with their fans going nuts. That was always going to be hard for England to stop. By the full-time whistle, there was a big gap between the teams. To get closer to competing with the Springboks, England need to add an extra layer to what they do with their possession.
Adding that subtlety is as much about a mindset shift as it is skill, if not more so. Look at South Africa. Yes, they are a team with a monster pack. Rassie Erasmus has a power team from one to 23 with a dominant scrum. But out wide, he has game changers like Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse and he’s not afraid to use them.
That hasn’t always been the case, but Rassie has evolved with the times. Grant Williams, the Springbok No 9, is also very sharp on the ball. Yes, he almost always plays on the front foot because of the strength of the giant men in front of him. But when it’s on to go wide or run, Williams does so. I was very impressed by him against England.
There’s also been a lot of talk about poor English discipline and you can’t argue with the numbers on that. England had eight yellow cards and one red in the Six Nations where they won just one game to finish fifth. There were two more yellows against South Africa, with Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper both being sent to the sin bin in the final 10 minutes. That made it eight England Tests in a row with at least one yellow and it quelled any hope of a late fightback.
I don’t tend to talk to my players about discipline, the reason being that such errors almost always tend to come as a result of the pressure you’re under as a team. England are seeing players carded because they’re often on the back foot and defending for long periods. If they can keep the ball themselves for more phases, that pressure will relent and the sin bins will start to dry up.
All England can worry about now is Fiji. The nature of the travel involved in the Nations Championship means there won’t be much Steve can do on the training paddock to rip up the game plan. There simply isn’t time. But I don’t think England will have much trouble beating the Pacific Islanders.
Wales showed the way to beat Fiji is to scrum, maul and line-out drive them off the pitch and these are England’s traditional strengths. Against South Africa, England were clearly the least powerful team. Against Fiji, that will flip completely and should be crucial.
Steve has to take it game by game now. You can never really afford to look too far ahead as a coach and that’s especially the case when you’re losing. The biggest challenge for Steve and England now is going to be mental. The doubts will start to creep in and Fiji is a dangerous fixture.
Steve will know that having already lost to them once before as England coach. I don’t expect that to happen again at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday. England should get back on track but if they don’t, Steve can expect a few more of the sort of looks I got the next time he goes to Waitrose.
The brutal truth is right now, his England team is still a long way off competing with the very best.
