After a sensational Six Nations won by France, with Ireland just behind them, England head coach Steve Borthwick is fighting to save his job.
Borthwick now goes into review mode with the Rugby Football Union’s performance director Conor O’Shea and chief executive Bill Sweeney, after an unprecedented four defeats in five Six Nations matches.
Borthwick said after England’s 48-46 loss to France in Paris on Saturday night: “I believe I am the right man to lead this team forward regardless.
“The team has been going through a tough spell, but it has a lot of growth in it.
“Myself, Maro [Itoje, the captain] and the hierarchy at the RFU all share that vision.”
Itoje added: “The way we played today is how we want to play going forward.”
The plain fact is Borthwick has failed to break England’s Six Nations title drought stretching back to 2020, with no Grand Slam since 2016.
On his watch since 2023, England have finished fourth, third, second and now fifth.
So where did England go wrong in 2026, as Europe’s fifth best team debates whether Borthwick should lead them to the World Cup next year?
Hype and hubris and confusing messages
Thomas Tuchel paid a visit to England’s training camp earlier this month (Photo: Getty)On the day Borthwick announced his Six Nations squad he said: “We talked… as a team, that on 14 March in Paris… we want England fans flooding across the Channel to Paris to come and watch the team in a massive encounter, with the opportunity to achieve what we want.
“We also know that the only way you get there is by ensuring you take each step one at a time and get our preparation right for the start.”
So there was an element of “take it one game at a time”, but the main takeaway was Borthwick over-promised.
England beat Wales 48-7 in the first match though prop Ellis Genge later said the players got caught up in the first-week hype.
Borthwick added more confusion after the 31-20 loss in Scotland in round two, saying he was giving some of the beaten players a chance to go again, otherwise they would have had a rest.
When it quickly went south in the next match against Ireland, he hauled off Luke Cowan-Dickie and Freddie Steward, but by then it was too late.
Before the fifth round in France, Borthwick reheated an old theme of “the weight of the jersey”, even though it’s his job to lighten that perceived load with a credible game plan and a positive attitude.
He asked celebrity visitors into camp to vary the voices, including skeleton gold medallist Matt Weston – perhaps advising what it is like to go downhill fast – and football boss Thomas Tuchel, plus England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup winners, who awkwardly had to revise their briefing over a curry with the current players, from what it is like to win to how to bounce back from losing.
A grand slam of yellow cards
England had at least one yellow card in every match, with their total of nine matching the ignominious Six Nations record held by Italy.
The sin bin was occupied by Itoje and Henry Pollock against Wales, Henry Arundell against Scotland (his two yellow cards added up to a 20-minute red), Freddie Steward and Pollock against Ireland, Sam Underhill and Itoje against Italy, and Genge against France – for a total of 94 minutes of England playing at least one man down.
Borthwick moaned about not keeping 15 men on the field, but he found no solution to it, although he took issue with the call on Genge for collapsing a maul, and Arundell’s first yellow at Murrayfield.
Is it England cracking under pressure? An inability to read the referee, or build a rapport with the officials?
The nine cards came in a variety of areas so it wasn’t a single technical fix.
Itoje said of his slap of the ball, playing the Italy scrum-half behind a maul: “With hindsight… it was probably better left.”
Careful what you wish for
Henry Arundell escaped a ban after receiving a red card against Scotland (Photo: Getty)The normally circumspect Borthwick began publicly debating what opposing teams would get up to.
Before the tone-setting defeat in Scotland, he pretty much dared Gregor Townsend’s team to feed their dangerous wide players.
In the event, when Arundell – whose defence is known to be suspect – went off, it gave the green light for Finn Russell and the Scotland backs to run amok.
Lightweight experiment snuffed out
One thing that may emerge in the RFU review is the degree to which Borthwick was allowed to experiment, with one eye on the World Cup.
This was also the excuse for not picking Tom Willis, the best No 8 in the Premiership.
Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the nine changes made to the team to face Italy, or the huge blunder to select three No 7s in the back row against Ireland at Twickenham.
The Irish had looked weak in losing to France and narrowly seeing off Italy.
But they recalled a few big names and big bodies and dominated England at the breakdown and initially in the line-out.
In the fifth round in Paris, Borthwick reverted to a trusted tactic from earlier in his reign of a big back-rower and extra line-out expert, and Ollie Chessum was magnificent in a seven-try performance.
The previous tactic was probably wrapped up in a kick-chase plan that didn’t work well enough, often enough, and was largely abandoned on the final night in Paris.
As full-back Elliot Daly pointed out, the kick to retrieve has a 50 per cent chance of success.
Borthwick, you sense, even now, still reckons on a good day it is worth relying on.
But anyone who has ever stuck all their chips on red in roulette would know the danger.
Switching off too often
George Ford’s kicking came under scrutiny following the humiliating defeat to Ireland (Photo: Getty)England led Wales 36-0 after 44 minutes, then scored only two more tries instead of putting the foot on the throat (an expression beloved of Itoje).
It was a pointer to England’s propensity to switch off in matches, or maybe, uncomfortably, with a lot of key players injured or unavailable at French clubs they don’t have the strength to be consistent over 80 minutes.
They started slowly against Scotland to trail 17-0, and suffered George Ford’s two missed kicks to touch to allow Ireland to go 22-0 up.
Worst of all, England failed to put Italy away after leading 18-10, with the Rome crowd quietened and BBC radio commentator Matt Dawson saying the Italians’ legs had gone.
As England assistant coach Joe El-Abd put it: “It’s like in football, if you have 30 shots but don’t score, and then they go and score at the other end, you’ve lost.”
Individual errors and fine margins
Genge slipped over on the retreat, as Ben White nabbed a crucial Scotland try at Murrayfield.
Pollock and Cadan Murley were loose with the ball at the final knockings when England led France 46-45.
Chessum could have run closer to the posts with his brilliant interception try in Paris, with the subsequent conversion missed.
It is tough but England must expect high standards.
Strange selections
Seb Atkinson showed signs of developing a promising partnership with Fin Smith (Photo: Getty)England worked the bomb-squad principle of a strong bench to their advantage in the autumn, but it fell away with injuries to props Fin Baxter, Will Stuart and Asher Opoku-Fordjour, plus key back Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
In the process, Borthwick threw Pollock into start versus Ireland, and bigged him up to the skies, then dropped him again.
The choice of Daly over George Furbank at full-back was debatable.
Tom Roebuck played against Wales after Feyi-Waboso pulled out, and Borthwick later admitted Roebuck could have done with another week of training.
And if Fin Smith and Seb Atkinson are the future at 10 and 12, why didn’t we see them until round four, with all chances of trophies gone?
The balance of coaching
Borthwick explained before the Six Nations that England have seven coaches, including him, because players expect unit and individual skills to receive bespoke attention.
But have there been too many cooks, while not enough Michelin stars?
The defence led by Richard Wigglesworth was ripped apart by France, following on from England missing 35 tackles leading to a break or a try in rounds two, three and four – more than any of the other teams.
Wigglesworth, previously in charge of England’s attack, is now designated as senior assistant, effectively Borthwick’s right-hand man.
Asked what it is like to have worked with Borthwick for many years, Wigglesworth was not keen to reply.
Why the difficulty? It should be easy to elaborate on a trusted and valued colleague.
Sweeney and the RFU are due to pronounce on whether to stick with this line-up, or make a change, the week after next.
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