{"id":506450,"date":"2026-04-01T04:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T04:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/506450\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T04:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T04:23:10","slug":"there-is-no-need-for-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/506450\/","title":{"rendered":"There is no need for revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maro Itoje has backed Steve Borthwick\u2019s tenure as England<\/a> head coach and told the Rugby Football Union there is \u201cno need for a revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RFU is currently undertaking an in-depth review of England\u2019s worst-ever Six Nations campaign<\/a>, with a return of just one win and an historic first defeat against Italy, with chief executive Bill Sweeney stopping short of offering his full backing<\/a> to Borthwick.<\/p>\n

The review into England\u2019s tournament is due to be completed by the end of April and Sweeney declined to confirm last week that Borthwick would remain in charge through to the Nations Championship matches in July.<\/p>\n

However, England captain Itoje insisted the blame for his side\u2019s poor results lay with the players, not Borthwick, who came under fire for his side\u2019s limited game plan before the final round last-gasp defeat by France<\/a> in Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take responsibility alongside the senior players. We need to make sure that the team is ready to go. There is truly no need for a revolution,\u201d Itoje told The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve didn\u2019t want us to play the way we were playing. That wasn\u2019t part of the plan. That wasn\u2019t part of how he coached throughout the week. But we unfortunately couldn\u2019t handle it. We spent way too much of the games with a man in the bin. And we weren\u2019t executing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were getting into the opposition 22 but we weren\u2019t converting. We weren\u2019t giving that extra pass. We weren\u2019t offloading like we did throughout 2025 [and 12 straight Test wins]. Looseness around the breakdown when we were in control. All of those things we didn\u2019t do as well as we should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RFU review<\/a> will once again be conducted by an anonymous panel, including sporting figures outside rugby union. Sweeney says the anonymity is required for contributors to provide \u201cdirect and frank feedback\u201d and is adamant that there is no \u201cpredetermined outcome\u201d to the review that will be conducted in two stages because of the availability of its participants.<\/p>\n

England face a tough fixture schedule in July against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in the opening rounds of the new Nations Championship; three games that could decide Borthwick\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

This week it emerged England will lose senior analyst Joe Lewis to the Springboks a month before facing them in Johannesburg. Lewis was previously England\u2019s head analyst between 2017 and 2021 and was present in Borthwick\u2019s coaching box on match days. He will join Felix Jones, who left Borthwick\u2019s set-up in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Itoje said the manner of the performance in the 48-46 defeat by France, in which England scored seven tries, was evidence of what the side could deliver when they followed their attacking instincts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat France game was a reminder that if we do our stuff, if we play the way we want to play, we can beat anyone,\u201d Itoje added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maro Itoje has backed Steve Borthwick\u2019s tenure as England head coach and told the Rugby Football Union there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[7166,15700,5903,23451,43326,217,101,5438,5831,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-506450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england-rugby-union-team","tag-maro-itoje","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-six-nations","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-standard","tag-steve-borthwick","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}