Andy Goode has called on Rugby Football Union bosses to grasp the nettle and replace Steve Borthwick while there is still time ahead of next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
England play France in Paris on Saturday, knowing defeat would make them the first Red Rose side ever to lose four times in a single Six Nations campaign. It would also condemn them to a joint-worst fifth-place finish.<\/p>\n
Against this sorry backdrop, former England fly-half Goode has a blunt message for RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney: \u201cThrow the chequebook at the Cheik man, Michael Cheika<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In the space of a month, Borthwick\u2019s team has imploded, the gains made in a run of 12 straight wins lost. On successive match days, Scotland, Ireland and Italy have humbled the men in white.<\/p>\n Tries have dried up, defence has gone to pot. Composure on both sides of the ball has disintegrated. Borthwick is the only England coach in the Six Nations era to concede an average of more than 20 points a game.<\/p>\n \u201cA massive change needs to come\u201d<\/p>\n Things will look different if England deny France the championship by beating them in Paris for the first time since 2016. But that requires them winning away in the tournament for only the second time in two years.<\/p>\n It means them curbing their appalling discipline, which leaves them one yellow card from tying the Six Nations record and it demands them changing their campaign-long practise of attacking with a chocolate hammer.<\/p>\n In short, Goode is not banking on it and, 19 months out from the World Cup, argues that it is tantamount to madness for England to plough on in the same ineffectual manner, expecting a different outcome.<\/p>\n \u201cA massive change needs to come,\u201d says the Premier Sports pundit. \u201cIf we lose it\u2019s our worst ever Six Nations and the questions get bigger and bigger around what\u2019s the best thing to do with Steve.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t think he\u2019s the right man for the job. We\u2019re at our lowest ebb. You can dress up getting to a World Cup semi-final [in 2023] and being one kick away [from the final].<\/p>\n \u201cYou can talk about the 12-game winning streak and all that stuff. But look at the bigger picture. Steve\u2019s on a 59% win ratio and is not coaching in a manner that excites people.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so out of touch, in my opinion, from where the game\u2019s moved to. You saw the Scotland-France game a week ago, you see how South Africa<\/a> play.<\/p>\n \u201cSteve\u2019s a man that coaches by data, by stats and numbers. These players put on an English shirt and, with some of them, it\u2019s like they\u2019re in a strait jacket.\u201d<\/p>\n PREM Rugby Cup Final: Springbok makes timely Exeter return as Leicester Tigers name SEVEN internationals<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBorthwick out simples\u201d<\/p>\n No sooner had England lost for the first time ever to Italy than Goode was tweeting: \u201cBorthwick out simples\u201d.<\/p>\n The RFU, uncharacteristically, made no attempt to douse the blaze, saying \u201cEngland fans rightly expect a team that learns and grows through adversity\u201d.<\/p>\n The inference from Sweeney\u2019s statement is that Borthwick has four games to save himself: France followed by three Nations Championship games in July. Goode believes the wheels should already be in motion for what comes next.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, if we beat France, he stays in a job, right?\u201d he says. \u201cAnd if the defeat is anything less than 10 you could probably see the RFU being risk-averse and keeping him there.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, 100 per cent, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s the right man. England should go after Cheika. Look at the man and his experience. He knows the Premiership. He knows a lot of these players.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he would love nothing more than going to Australia next year to try and win a World Cup, perhaps with Ronan O\u2019Gara as one of his coaches.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will say, \u2018there\u2019s only 19 months to go to the World Cup\u2019, and that is true. But let\u2019s not forget Steve got the job in December 2022, 10 months before the last one.<\/p>\n \u201cRassie [Erasmus] got the job with South Africa 18 months out from the 2019 World Cup, which they won. So it\u2019s happened before. it is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Where France are the \u2018most lethal\u2019 team in the world as Paul Gustard issues \u2018dicing with danger\u2019 warning to England ahead of \u2018future-defining\u2019 game<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Lee?\u201d<\/p>\n There is much that concerns Goode about what he has seen over the past month. But it is what he did not see last weekend, namely attack Lee Blackett sitting beside Borthwick, which particularly troubled him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe loudest thing that spoke to me from the weekend was when cameras were panning on the coach\u2019s box and you\u2019ve got [defence coach] Richard Wigglesworth on one side of Steve and [performance director] Phil Morrow on the other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the biggest failure going on at the minute? Attack. Yet you\u2019ve got a defence coach on one side and a high-performance guy on the other. Where\u2019s Lee?<\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion, you should have attack and defence next to you as a head coach. Because they\u2019re the main two facets of the game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can all see how fundamental attack is in the game now. Yet our attack coach, who by the way is a wonderful coach, can\u2019t be seen in the picture. Nor can you see the blueprint of how his sides play and attack on the pitch. It\u2019s baffling.\u201d<\/p>\n For England to stand a chance of redemption at Stade de France, Goode says the players must play with a freedom they have not done so this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s do or die, no-one\u2019s given them a chance,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to roll the dice. Like Scotland<\/a>, they have got to dominate possession, keep ball in hand and stress the French defence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen England do it before. In 2024 Ireland came to Twickenham unbeaten and looked like they would run away with it until we saw the English lads go \u2018right, let\u2019s have a proper crack\u2019. They threw off the shackles and Marcus Smith\u2019s drop goal won it for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Goode will be with Premier Sports in Cardiff, where Wales play Italy<\/a> looking for their first Six Nations win in three years. Victory for the Italians would be their third in the tournament and make it their best ever campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be massive for them and you have to salute the championship they have had,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re are a proper team, very well coached. I\u2019d love to see England attack in the manner they do.<\/p>\n \u201cAs for Wales, they need a win however they get one to get this monkey off their back. I hear there are tickets still available.\u00a0 The WRU should be at the gates giving them out for free to get bums on seats and noise in the stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir players have put in a big shift over the last three weeks. Sometimes you need a bit of luck and a bit of noise from the crowd to get you over the line. Being a quarter-Welsh myself, I hope that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy Goode is part of the Premier Sports team alongside Tom Shanklin\u00a0and Sebastian Negri bringing live UK coverage of Wales v Italy from the Principality Stadium this Saturday in the Guinness Men\u2019s Six Nations (Premier Sports 1 and Premier Sports Rugby from 4pm). Join in at www.premiersports.com<\/a> @premSportsTV for more than 400 elite rugby fixtures every season including EPCR, URC, Top 14, MLR and Japan League One.<\/p>\n