A fifth successive Test defeat certainly leaves the Steve\u00a0Borthwick project under renewed pressure and mounting scrutiny. Lose in Liverpool this Saturday and the whole tower of Jenga will be in danger of collapsing. Senior officials at the Rugby Football Union, having backed the Borthwick regime to rebound positively from the fifth\u2011placed finish in the Six\u00a0Nations, will certainly be praying the Fijians do not start strongly at Everton\u2019s Hill\u00a0Dickinson\u00a0Stadium.<\/p>\n
Because strip away all the top\u2011table platitudes and AI robot speak, and where is the evidence that England are steadily\u00a0improving? In what aspects\u00a0of the game are they consistently good? Why did it feel that South Africa were better organised, selected and coached \u2013 not to mention clearer\u2011eyed and better disciplined?<\/p>\n
The Boks, let\u2019s not forget, were lacking their inspirational captain,\u00a0their star fly-half, a truckload of\u00a0second-row forwards and a couple of key front-row bench\u00a0options. England were without George Furbank and their\u00a0absent captain, Maro Itoje, but could otherwise call on most of their key influencers. While all\u00a0involved were frequently brave\u00a0and dogged, they were down\u00a017-0 inside the first 12 minutes. Few recover to beat South\u00a0Africa from there.<\/p>\n
To his credit the England fly\u2011half\u00a0Fin Smith was among those\u00a0to acknowledge as much. \u201cFor us to start as poorly as we did\u00a0was frustrating. I thought we were soft defensively, missed a lot of tackles and ultimately they\u00a0scored quickly when they got\u00a0into our 22.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was also a dispiriting sense\u00a0of deja vu about the late yellow cards shown to Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper that took England\u2019s tally to 10 this year. \u201cIt just got away from us,\u201d Smith said, referencing England\u2019s damaging ill discipline. \u201cIt is hard not to think that has happened a few times in the past couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Borthwick is under renewed pressure. Photograph: Nations Championship\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Composure and the aerial game will certainly be a focus this week but they feel symptomatic of a broader issue. How come Felix Jones was having so little fun with England that he jumped at the chance to rejoin South Africa\u2019s brains trust? Why was Joe Lewis, England\u2019s top analyst as recently as March, allowed to switch camps and take with him a significant amount of inside knowledge? No\u00a0wonder South Africa had uncanny success in probing England\u2019s weaknesses.<\/p>\n
Throw in Tony Brown\u2019s striking contribution to South Africa\u2019s ever-improving attacking game and Rassie Erasmus\u2019s magpie\u2019s eye which is unquestionably adding to the shining talent at his disposal. England, by contrast, have a relatively inexperienced roster of coaches at the highest level and a head coach more comfortable with data than human chemistry. Which is all well and good until the time comes to press the kind of artful emotional buttons that are the stock in trade of, say, Andy Farrell or Shaun Edwards.<\/p>\n
Borthwick\u2019s record against the three biggest southern hemisphere sides since taking over from Eddie\u00a0Jones at the end of 2022 also\u00a0tells its own story: there have been six defeats in eight attempts with the two victories coming at home against a knackered Australia\u00a0and a disaffected New\u00a0Zealand respectively. With their other Six\u00a0Nations rivals \u2013 France, Ireland,\u00a0Scotland and maybe even Wales \u2013 on an upward trajectory, England are starting to look becalmed just over a year before the 2027 World Cup.<\/p>\n
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