If Steve Borthwick had previously seen himself as belonging in the heavyweight rugby coaching division, he is sprawled on the canvas right now.
The way the England head coach goes about hauling himself and his team back up again from back-to-back defeats by Scotland and Ireland will tell us a lot about his fitness for the job.
There have been confusing statements and selections from Borthwick in recent weeks including some that deviated from what you would expect.
Steve Borthwick reacts after England's 21-42 defeat to Ireland in the Six Nations pic.twitter.com/gJLLkB0J1h
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) February 21, 2026Before the 31-20 loss to Scotland on 14 February he commented more than usual about the opponents and how they might play.
This was interesting discourse, but if the opponents then out-think and outplay you, as Scotland did, it has an empty ring.
That was followed last week by Borthwick bigging up Henry Pollock, when surely the coach’s instinct would be to wait for such a young man to prove himself.
There was not enough from the 21-year-old making his first international start to worry the Irish in the visitors’ 42-21 rampage at Twickenham on Saturday, and it turned the hype from Borthwick into hot air.
He said he would have changed or rested another one or two players after the Scotland setback, if England had won, saying: “I’m backing players there, and I want players to feel backed.”
Henry Pollock endured a tough first start for England against Ireland (Photo: Getty)These betting slips were torn up when he hooked Freddie Steward, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Maro Itoje earlier than normal.
Going in without a big back-rower against Ireland was a risk that failed.
Guy Pepper will surely start against Italy in Rome on 7 March, with England finishing their Six Nations against France in Paris a week later.
Whatever happens in those matches, England are facing a sixth year in a row without a title – four of them under Borthwick.
We must remember that England had won 12 straight Tests up to and including beating Wales 48-7 in their Six Nations opener, and England have now scored 27 tries in six matches at Twickenham this season.
Remember, too, South Africa lost 38-22 at home to Australia in the Rugby Championship last summer – so calamity can happen, even to the best.
George Ford has never missed two early penalty kicks to touch in his 108 caps and he never will again.
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Ireland set aside some iffy form of their own to rampantly exploit several England weaknesses.
Key injuries have not helped England: to the props Fin Baxter and Will Stuart, and the influential wing Manny Feyi-Waboso.
The fitness of Itoje and Tom Roebuck to start in this Six Nations has been questionable.
Taking all these circumstances together, the boss of the team needed to be light-footed and adaptable, like Muhammad Ali, backing on to the ropes but still coming out swinging.
Instead, England’s defence on the edge and power through the middle have been lacking.
Fin Smith and George Furbank were injured just before the Six Nations, but now are obvious alternatives to the non-game-changing Ford and Steward; ditto using Max Ojomoh in the centres.
If you call to mind heavyweight coaches such as Graham Henry, Rassie Erasmus, Warren Gatland, Eddie Jones, Fabien Galthie and, to a lesser extent, Andy Farrell, you knew when things were going wrong there would be hell to pay; maybe mostly behind closed doors, but with enough venom seeping into their public statements.
Others, such as Ian McGeechan and Bath’s Johann van Graan, are more measured, but with an undercurrent of steel.
Asked on Saturday evening if it was time to get angry, Borthwick replied: “There’s plenty of time where, within the squad, the conversations are very honest and forthright.”
But will that come from you, Steve? “Yes. When I refer to us, I refer to everybody within the environment.”
At the Six Nations launch event last month Borthwick explained that if, for instance, an aspect of England’s defence went wrong it would be on all of their coaches, not just the defence coach.
But when the top man is down and taking a count, there is only one set of uprooted feet everyone is looking at.
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