Eddie Jones believes Steve Borthwick’s unusually bold approach prior to the Six Nations Championship has played a part in their disastrous past two performances.
The Red Rose started the tournament well enough by hammering Wales but they have followed that up with awful displays against Scotland and Ireland.
That has ended their Grand Slam dream and also their title chances, with France 10 points ahead with two matches remaining.
The ‘Super Saturday’ clash between Les Bleus and the Red Rose was earmarked as a likely Grand Slam decider and Borthwick bought into that hype.
Confident Borthwick
England’s head coach rarely gives much away in interviews and press conferences but he was quite happy to state that they were looking towards that finale before the Six Nations had even begun.
Jones was surprised by the messaging and felt that his bosses at the RFU may have had a certain amount of influence in what Borthwick said.
“I will go back to the start of the Six Nations because I thought Steve made some very uncharacteristic comments about a title-decider against France, and looking ahead,” he told the Rugby Unity podcast.
“Steve is the most pragmatic and intelligent coach you could meet but to look ahead for any team is fraught with danger, we all know that.
“Sometimes the pressure comes that the union wants to hear more, they want to entice the fans – they’re all hungry for money so they want fan support.
“Be a bit bold, come out and someone’s told him to do that. The players read everything, the wives read everything, the girlfriends read everything, the boyfriends read everything, they all read it.
“They hear it and they talk to them, and they go, ‘we’ve got to get our tickets for France. Where are we staying?’
“All of that happens, right, and the slight psychological change you get in the team because of that, they start to look ahead.”
Given that England had been on an 11-match winning run going into the Six Nations – which became 12 after the Wales success – it is perhaps not unfair to look ahead to what would have been their toughest challenge.
They were expected to dispatch Scotland and Ireland relatively comfortably, but Jones reckons the recent results have shown what can happen when the mind drifts from the next task.
Scotland loss ‘crept into their psyche’
“When they lose the game like they did against Scotland – they got caught on the hop against Scotland – and I think the Scotland game against Wales shows that they were just caught on the hop,” Jones said.
“That was a one-off, but now that one-off has crept into their psyche. They’re disappointed about where they are, they’re all feeling a bit threatened now and how do change it around?
“It takes leadership on and off the field, that’s the only way to change it around.
“I can remember we started to get out of that when Courtney [Lawes] came on as captain [in 2021]. Owen [Farrell] had been injured and Courtney had a real togetherness about him and started to bring the team together.
“Owen came back and gave us a bit of steel, and we were starting to find something again. It generally comes down to leadership “
There has been criticism of Borthwick following the losses to Scotland and Ireland, but sometimes there is little a coach can do according to Jones, particularly during a game.
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“I remember sitting in a game next to Sir Alex Ferguson watching Man United play and [Jose] Mourinho had made his two changes. They were getting absolutely pumped and I said to him, ‘what can he do now?’ He said: ‘There’s not much he can do’,” he added.
“Steve made those two changes with Marcus [Smith and Jamie George] coming on. I thought Jamie George made a difference when he came on, you could see him bring them together but, once he did that, there’s not much he could do in the game.
“It’s a long afternoon at Twickenham then.”