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Despite being keen to unleash the potential of his players, new England boss Steve Borthwick has acknowledged that his side will not be in the best shape during their Six Nations opening against Scotland at Twickenham in February.
The former Leicester Tigers rugby director took over England’s coaching reins from Eddie Jones earlier this week after agreeing to a five-year contract with the Rugby Football Union (RFU).
As the Six Nations kicks off in six weeks and the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France kicks off in September, Borthwick will need to run and hit the ground.
sure to turn things around
And after a bad run in 2022 where England lost six of their 12 international players, Borthwick believes he can bring the bright days back to Red Rose.
“There’s so much potential in the players we have and I want to build a team that achieves that, so I’m going to dedicate my whole heart to helping this team do that and be a team we can all be proud of.” He insisted.
“Are we finally going to be perfect in that first game of the Six Nations? No. Is that exactly how the team is going to play? No. It’s a start but one thing is for sure, the team has to go there and fight.
“He has to compete, so I want this crowd to roar when they come out. I want that Twickenham roar. Our job is to play somehow, struggle somehow and compete in a way that makes them roar.
Since reversing the Tigers’ fate, Borthwick has been seen as the favorite to replace Jones, but the RFU brought him in sooner than expected due to their crushing performances last year that saw England inflict humiliating losses to Argentina and Scotland.
He is eager to be on his own, but will use the experiences he shared with Jones after eight years of coaching with his predecessor in Japan and England.
The 45-year-old used an example of Jones’ frankness during England’s 2019 World Cup campaign at Twickenham this week.
Eddie came in and said, ‘We’re going to play (in the semi-finals) against New Zealand on Saturday’. ‘All we have to do is one, two, three,’ said Borthwick, as he slammed the table three times.
“If we do one, two, three, we’ll win this weekend,” he said. We have to get the one, two, three details right, but that’s what we had to do’ and you could see that in everybody.
“The clarity in the room, the one, two, three making to the coaches and the players, and the clarity of the plan, that was incredible.”
Leading Leicester to the 2021/22 Premiership title, Borthwick will seek to bring similar clarity when working with England’s players for the first time at a training camp in early January.
The appointment of former rugby league stalwart Kevin Sinfield to Borthwick in England as Red Rose’s defensive coach raises questions about the future of Brett Hodgson, who was hired for the same position last month.
Borthwick’s main task in the short term will be to weed out the backroom staff and then try to build a Six Nations roster, but he believes the door is open for anyone who has worked in the Premiership for the past three seasons.
concentrate on the future
“I don’t look too much in the rear view mirror about what’s been done before,” he added. “I focus on what to do and look to every player to tell them there is an opportunity.
“The last two and a half years have been an opportunity for me to sit in the head coach seat at the club level and see and understand the challenges and get to know other coaches.
“I think coaching in the league is of a really high standard. It’s very, very competitive, so players will be playing very competitive competition right now.
“My job is to get players together as quickly as possible, to be really clear about how we’re going to play and what are the top priorities we’re going to focus on getting into the first game, because the first game matters. Every game counts.”
READ MORE: England: World Cup-winning head coach Steve Hansen ‘surprised’ by Eddie Jones sacking
England: Steve Borthwick knows it takes time to mark his team with his own style article first appeared on Planetrugby.com.
