England’s autumn wasn’t perfect but they’re in the winning habit, now they need a Six Nations title as a tangible sign of their progress.
France will be favourites for that as they have England at home on Super Saturday, as well as Ireland in Paris in Round 1, but such has been the transformation of Steve Borthwick’s side over the last 12 months that anything less than taking it to a Grand Slam decider on March 14 will be a disappointment.
The men in white have to see themselves as favourites for the title, even if the bookies don’t, and embrace the pressure that comes with that after an autumn where they beat the All Blacks on their way to completing a clean sweep of victories.
The bench did the business against Australia and Fiji and it was a second half surge that did for New Zealand but they let a big lead slip after the break against Argentina, so I think their end of autumn report would probably give them an eight out of 10.
That’s a massive improvement on a year ago when a solitary win over Japan was all they had to show for their November efforts and Borthwick has built more depth as well as, crucially, instilled in his players an ability to get over the line and win in different ways.
A big part of that is mentality but there have been huge improvements in both defence and attack, with Byron McGuigan and Lee Blackett jointly deserving the award for England’s men of the autumn.
They restricted all four opponents to three tries or fewer, while scoring four or more against all bar the Pumas and some of the tries they ran in were up there with the best we’ve seen from them in some time.
On the field, Guy Pepper was probably England’s player of the autumn as he started all four games and might not have stood out particularly in some of the bare statistics but held things together and allowed others to do the flashy stuff.
It’s incredible to think he’d started just one Test against the USA prior to the autumn and now seems to be one of the first names on the team sheet but he’s just the latest in a long line of youngsters who have come in and taken their chance.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman, Tom Roebuck, Freddie Steward, Fin Baxter, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Chandler Cunningham-South, Henry Pollock and co are all 24 or younger and there is now an excellent blend with the more experienced members of the squad.
Joe Heyes (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Joe Heyes is one who falls between those two groups but he’s been outstanding and deserves some recognition, probably just behind Pepper, for stepping up during the past month.
At the head of it all, Maro Itoje has come back from captaining the British & Irish Lions and strung together a few of the best games he’s had in a white shirt for quite a while.
There’s no debating his status as a starter, George Ford seems to have nailed down the No.10 jersey regardless of anyone’s opinion as to Fin Smith’s claims to it and Ben Earl is likely to start somewhere in the back row with Pepper but there aren’t many others guaranteed a spot in the starting XV.
That would be a concern in a losing team but England have turned it into a strength as the likes of Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Tom Curry and other players who would start for almost any team in the world have been used for their impact as replacements.
Elsewhere, I think Ollie Lawrence showed more than enough after his return from an Achilles injury to suggest he’s the man to wear 13 when fit but it’s going to be a tough call between Max Ojomoh and Fraser Dingwall inside him now.
One of the biggest indicators of how impressive they both were is that I didn’t hear anyone even mention Owen Farrell’s name during the autumn.
Max Ojomoh of England celebrates scoring his team’s opening try during the Quilter Nations Series 2025 rugby international match between England and Argentina at Allianz Stadium on November 23, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images)
I’m a massive Ojomoh fan and he couldn’t have done more in just his second cap, scoring one himself and setting up the other two as well as gaining more metres than anyone else and not missing a tackle, but Dingwall is such a good organiser and has more credit in the bank.
Borthwick has been good at picking on PREM form recently so Dingwall is probably in pole position but there’s every chance the starting berth for the game against Wales in 10 weeks’ time will be decided by who performs best in the big domestic games between now and then. Bath face Northampton between Christmas and New Year and that could be a big one.
The competition in the back three is insane, with George Furbank to come back into the mix too. Alex Coles has started six of the last seven Tests at lock with George Martin to come back and join Ollie Chessum and Itoje in the engine room conversation so England have two players in pretty much every position now.
That depth is going to be more important than ever in next year’s Six Nations with one less rest week than usual so we’re going to see a bit more rotation than in years gone by and more players will get an opportunity.
Borthwick has a few selection headaches but they’re exactly the sort of dilemmas every head coach wants and he and his players should be going into the Six Nations with an expectation that they’re going to win the Grand Slam.
People will say that’s typical of an arrogant Englishman but if you want to be considered one of the best teams in the world and be a main contender to win the World Cup in a couple of years’ time, you have to lay a marker down.
England haven’t won the Six Nations since 2020 and have won just one of the last eight editions, which clearly isn’t good enough, but there is excitement around English rugby and now is the time to improve that ropey record.