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One wouldn’t have expected as cagey a character as Steve Borthwick to address Danny Care’s allegations of the toxic culture that surrounded the Eddie Jones era of English rugby directly, but the Australian’s successor most certainly has a perspective worth hearing. Borthwick, of course, was a key lieutenant and assistant coach to Jones in the period which Care portrays as “like living in a dictatorship, under a despot who disappeared people”.
The retired scrum half’s comments come from his forthcoming memoir Everything Happens for a Reason, with extracts serialised in The Times. There is little information included that has not been whispered, rumoured or insinuated on or off the record in the past, but it shows in stark detail how even one of England’s most senior players felt cowed by a figure he compares to a school bully.
Among the allegations made by Care are that Jones had no time for feedback from players, ruling in an autocratic manner. Top coaches are clear that the sporting world has changed and a collaborative approach is better; while Borthwick wished not to reflect on his own time under Jones, he did at least recognise the importance of being checked and challenged.
“I’m not going to talk about somebody else’s experience and what they’ve found,” Borthwick said after naming an unchanged starting side to face Australia on Saturday. “My focus is on the environment and culture that we are building with this team at this time. I finished with England [as an assistant] very early in 2020 and now we’re here in 2024. My focus and attention is on this team now and the environment I want to create.
“One thing we have with this is ensuring we are building a process of the players leading elements of the game. In this campaign, in this series we’ve had a notable step forward in terms of the players speaking in team meetings, sharing their opinions. I think it’s sign of the growth of this squad, a really positive step for the growth of this squad.
“There are plenty of times where we have ideas and we discuss them. It’s almost on a daily basis I’ll be chatting with players and bouncing ideas round and then things get moulded, adapted and improved. The players are the ones on the pitch who know the game better than anyone else. The best players are the best coaches and luckily we have some great, great minds in this group.”
Borthwick has made clear attempts to create an environment with distinct differences to that of the man he succeeded. Stability and continuity have been prioritised, from establishing a regular overseas training base in Girona to keeping changes to both team and squad minimal. It can be seen in the side for Saturday’s encounter with the Wallabies – even after a defeat, a relatively trivial switch of numbers between Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence, who will continue to interchange positionally in attack and line up with Slade at 13 defensively, is as dramatic as it gets out of a desire for continuity.
Borthwick’s inclusion of Luke Cowan-Dickie, as suggested in The Independent on Monday, as the bench hooker is in part an attempted remedy for their last-quarter scrum woes but there is precious little else to pick at. Long gone are the days of an autumn where the selection tombola seemed to be spun before each fixture.
Speak to the England squad now and there is a sense of contentment, even amid a lean run. Borthwick’s side have produced good or encouraging performances in each of their last six games and come away with wins in just two of them, putting the pressure on against an Australian side that they will be expected to beat.
Borthwick afforded his forwards an extra half-hour in bed on Monday morning, recognising the rigours of a tough test against New Zealand. He has consistently emphasised a need for his players to relax and enjoy time off the pitch to ensure that they peak emotionally and physically in the correct way when on it. To that end, a ping pong table and other recreational elements have been installed in the new “flexible multi-purpose space” now stationed alongside their training pitch at Pennyhill Park.
“I feel like Steve has a really good understanding of the [importance of] down time, and then getting you right up in the training,” flanker Tom Curry, who wins his 55th cap after making his debut in 2017 under Jones, explained. “We had sleep yoga the other day, and there’s loads of different things around turning it on, so when we are on we are properly on. I’ve really enjoyed that.
“I can only give my opinion. Personally, I was ok [under Jones]. I had a lot of respect for Eddie. He brought me in when I was 18. He worked me hard but I always understood where he was coming from and I thought he tried to get the best out of me.
“Steve has been brilliant in terms of understanding what I need. We have had good chats where he has been ‘do you really need to do this?’ and I’m kind of maybe… and he’s ‘no, go and rest up and recover properly’. I think we’re very open. Being more mature and understanding my management has been a big step forward.
“One of the skills [of coaching] as well is that not everyone needs the same thing. For me, I like being pushed and driven; for someone else, it might be putting an arm round them. We have got really good coaches – Wiggy [Richard Wigglesworth], Joe [El-Abd], obviously Steve…
“Kevin Sinfield is brilliant in the other side of it, being able to have a chat with someone. Kev’s been unbelievable, especially for my brother, he’s always been there for him. That side is definitely more important now, in the modern game, a hundred per cent. I think there’s more pressure but in terms of the environment here, it accommodates perfectly.”
England team to face Australia at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham (Saturday 9 November, 3.10pm GMT)
Starting XV: 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George (capt.), 3 Will Stuart; 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Martin; 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 7 Tom Curry, 8 Ben Earl; 9 Ben Spencer, 10 Marcus Smith; 11 Tommy Freeman, 12 Henry Slade, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso; 15 George Furbank.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt; 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Ollie Sleightholme.
