England haven’t won the competition since 2020, but after a successful 2025, there is growing belief among fans that the side is ready to take the next step.<\/p>\n
“I think it is brilliant that people are talking in that way about this England team,” Borthwick said.<\/p>\n
– England, Saracens hooker Jamie George to retire in 2027<\/a> “They can see the development of the team and they can see the talent that’s in the team and they can see the potential that’s in it. I think we’re nowhere near maxing out the potential.<\/p>\n Borthwick highlighted the final game against defending champions France in Paris as an end goal, pointing out that the last seven tournaments have gone down to the final round.<\/p>\n “On March 14 Paris, we want to be in a position in that game, entering that game, we want to be in a position where we can achieve what we’re all aiming to achieve. That’s what we want,” Borthwick said.<\/p>\n “We want England fans flooding across the Channel to Paris to come and watch the team in a massive encounter on the final round with the opportunity to achieve what we want.<\/p>\n “We also know that the only way you get there is by ensuring each of you take each step one at a time and get our preparation right for the start of the tournament.”<\/p>\n With several key players likely to miss the Wales Test with injury — Fin Baxter, Ben Curry, Ollie Lawrence, Tom Roebuck and Fin Smith — with props Will Stuart and Asher Opoku-Fordjour ruled out for the tournament, Borthwick’s depth will be tested through the competition.<\/p>\n However, the head coach is adamant he has a squad which can cope with any hand they are dealt.<\/p>\n “We have a super group of senior, experienced Test players as well as these young players who are doing really well, bringing all their talent into the team,” Borthwick said.<\/p>\n “I’m really pleased that Billy Sela is in the England senior squad for the first time — a player of exceptional talent and potential. Greg Fisilau and Manny Iyogun have been in the squad at different times but are both playing really well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Borthwick has conceded England’s final Six Nations game against France on March 14 is one they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-433005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– Six Nations 2026: Schedule, results, table, squads, news, TV info, more<\/a>
– Wales players set pre-Six Nations deadline to WRU for clarity on future<\/a><\/p>\nEngland beat France at Twickenham last year.\u00a0ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n