England will be left wondering what might have been at the 2027 Rugby World Cup if the RFU doesn\u2019t act by restructuring the coaching staff and adding an infrastructure to better support Steve Borthwick.<\/p>\n
The Issue<\/p>\n
Let us begin with the facts, because they are sufficiently grim to require no embellishment.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s<\/a> 2026 Six Nations was the worst in their history. Four defeats from five matches. A first-ever loss to Italy. A fifth-place finish that came with the unwanted distinction of conceding more points than any England side has managed in the tournament\u2019s 27-year existence. The 12-match winning streak that preceded it now looks like a mirage, a run inflated by home advantage, exhausted tourists, opponents in transition and the sort of flattering scorelines that dissolve the moment you face a side with a functioning defensive system and a plan.<\/p>\n This is, remember, a team that was handed one of the kindest World Cup<\/a> draws in living memory in 2023, navigated it without meeting a genuine heavyweight until the semi-final, lost to South Africa anyway, and somehow emerged with credit for finishing third.<\/p>\n A team whose players spent portions of the Six Nations<\/a> posting flexing selfies and gym videos on Instagram while their on-field performances were being dismantled by opponents who had clearly spent their time lifting iron to the soundtracks of England\u2019s Instagram clouting. The emperor\u2019s new clothes had never looked quite so threadbare. Scotland scored 31 at Murrayfield. Ireland put 42 on them at Twickenham. Italy won in Rome with something approaching comfort once the yellow cards began to flow. And France, needing a last kick to win the title, got it, because England\u2019s discipline had once again ensured they spent critical minutes a man short.<\/p>\n Had England maintained consistent selection after the 2023 World Cup, had they kept Joe Marchant, Courtney Lawes, Jack Willis, David Ribbans, Kyle Sinckler, and built around that core rather than discarding it, they would not be staring at another rebuild with 18 months until the next tournament. Instead, England are re-engineer their squad with a regularity that Toyota and their Corolla would be jealous of: a new model every cycle, each one promising to be the definitive version, each one quietly discontinued before it reaches maturity.<\/p>\n The pattern is not bad luck. It is structural. A coaching setup too narrow at the top, a head coach overburdened by the scale of the job, and an absence of senior strategic authority.<\/p>\n The Rugby Football Union knows this. Bill Sweeney\u2019s refusal to guarantee Steve Borthwick\u2019s<\/a> position, his careful use of \u201cat the present\u201d when denying contact with Andy Farrell<\/a>, and the commissioning of an anonymous review panel including Conor O\u2019Shea and Ben Kay all point to an organisation preparing the ground for significant change. The review is due to be reported by the end of April. Its conclusions will determine whether the RFU has the nerve to act on what the evidence demands.<\/p>\n England great passes on \u2018wind-up merchant\u2019 mantle as Henry Pollock \u2018lives rent-free\u2019 in opposition heads<\/a><\/p>\n The Evidence<\/p>\n The case for restructuring England\u2019s coaching hierarchy has been building for years, but the Six Nations brought it into painful focus. Borthwick\u2019s assistants have been reshuffled so relentlessly that the coaching ticket now has more turnover than a Trump cabinet, and roughly the same strategic continuity.<\/p>\n The departures of Felix Jones and Aled Walters in 2024 remain the most damaging self-inflicted wounds of the entire cycle. Jones was the architect of England\u2019s blitz defence, the single most identifiable tactical improvement of Borthwick\u2019s tenure. Walters was the strength and conditioning coach who helped the Springboks win the 2019 World Cup.<\/p>\n Both left because they were unhappy with the working environment, and both were allowed to walk. Letting them go was the rugby equivalent of when the Eagles fired Don Felder, the man who wrote Hotel California: you can check out of that level of expertise any time you like, but you can never replace it. England\u2019s defence and physical conditioning have regressed ever since.<\/p>\n Lee Blackett\u2019s arrival as attack coach was supposed to provide fresh impetus, but cameras caught him absent from Borthwick\u2019s side in the coaching box during the tournament. When your attack is malfunctioning and your attack coach is not in the picture, the picture tells you everything. Andy Goode on RugbyPass was blunt: another reshuffle would not cut it. What was needed was someone coming in above Borthwick, and the RFU should be targeting Michael Cheika.<\/p>\n Stuart Barnes, in the Sunday Times, called Borthwick a technician rather than a leader. But the most significant intervention came from Jake White. The 2007 World Cup-winning Springbok coach told RugbyPass that the England job was too big for one man and that the country needed to return to Clive Woodward\u2019s philosophy.<\/p>\n Crucially, White revealed he had twice been interviewed by the RFU, in 2011 and 2015, and in the latter process spent three hours explaining to Ian Ritchie why England needed a dual coaching structure modelled on the All Blacks\u2019 practice of pairing senior figures such as Graham Henry and Steve Hansen. He disclosed that he had pushed for that structure with Eddie Jones, believing they could replicate their 2007 World Cup partnership. The timing of White\u2019s intervention, right in the middle of England\u2019s crisis, was unmistakably purposeful. You do not give a three-hour interview about the architecture of a job you are not interested in filling.<\/p>\n The phone call that led to Courtney Lawes choosing Sale Sharks and the \u2018priceless\u2019 reaction of England duo that bodes well<\/a><\/p>\n The Outcomes<\/p>\n The Guardian reported that a new general manager role modelled on Rassie Erasmus\u2019s South Africa structure, designed to allow Borthwick to focus purely on coaching, has been actively discussed as part of the review. This is the critical detail. The RFU is not debating whether to sack Borthwick. It is considering a new tier of authority above him: a senior figure with operational control over team affairs, media management and strategic direction. The precedent exists within the RFU\u2019s own history: Rob Andrew was appointed Director of Elite Rugby in 2006 with the authority to hire and fire coaches. The question is not whether the structure makes sense. It is who fills it.<\/p>\n Four names are understood to be in the frame. White brings World Cup pedigree, a pre-existing relationship with the RFU interview process, and the intellectual architecture for this kind of dual leadership. Cheika offers Premiership knowledge from Leicester, international experience across three continents, and a track record of short-term turnarounds that includes taking Australia to the 2015 World Cup final within 12 months.<\/p>\n John Mitchell provides defence coaching credentials across multiple international setups and deep familiarity with both the English and southern hemisphere systems. And then there is Woodward himself.<\/p>\n Writing in the Mail on Sunday after the Six Nations, Woodward said Borthwick was under pressure and that the temptation was to take on too much yourself as head coach. The trick, Woodward wrote, was to do the opposite and share the workload. Read that again. Those are not the words of a passive observer offering counsel from the commentary box. They are practically a job application.<\/p>\n Woodward is understood to be a serious figure in the conversation around the review\u2019s recommendations, and his name carries a weight inside the RFU that no other candidate can match. He built the infrastructure that won England\u2019s only World Cup. He invented the role now being discussed.<\/p>\n Ranked: Six Nations teams as kicking is up in 2026 with England\u2019s making \u2018striking retreat\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The Proof<\/p>\n The review panel\u2019s composition tells its own story. Kay has spoken publicly about the need for a clear plan<\/a> rather than cycling through coaches in the manner of a Premier League football club, a comparison that lands with uncomfortable precision after England\u2019s fourth, third, second and fifth-place finishes in successive Six Nations under Borthwick. Former England captain Lewis Moody, a 2003 World Cup winner involved in previous RFU review processes, is understood to have knowledge of the direction of travel. Players and coaching staff are being canvassed. The conclusions are imminent.<\/p>\n The financial logic also points towards restructuring rather than dismissal. Borthwick is contracted until the end of the 2027 World Cup. Sacking him triggers a significant payout and leaves the RFU searching for a replacement with 18 months to go. Appointing a senior figure above him brings in the authority the review will demand while retaining Borthwick\u2019s undoubted strengths in the coaching detail he excels at: forwards, lineout, set piece preparation. He remains one of the finest technical coaches in the game.<\/p>\n The problem has never been his ability to prepare a pack. It has been everything else. Whether Borthwick would accept such an arrangement is the question Goode raised, and the answer may determine the entire outcome. Pride is a powerful thing. But so is a World Cup contract and the chance to be part of something that might actually work.<\/p>\n State of the Nation: England facing \u2018ugly post-mortem\u2019 as Steve Borthwick regime left answering \u2018existential questions\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The Future<\/p>\n England face South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July. Those matches represent Borthwick\u2019s audition, but they may also be the first window in which a new senior appointment begins to exert influence. The review report lands within weeks. The candidates are identifiable. England have spent the post-Woodward era lurching between head coaches and hoping the next one will unlock a player pool everyone agrees is amongst the deepest in world rugby. It has not worked. Jones won three Six Nations titles but left behind a squad so depleted in confidence that Borthwick inherited a rebuilding job. Borthwick rebuilt, won 13 in a row, then watched it collapse in three weeks while his players documented their corridor \u2018bants\u2019 for social media.<\/p>\n The All Blacks built sustained dominance through dual leadership. South Africa won back-to-back World Cups with Erasmus operating above his coaching staff before stepping into the head coach role when it suited. England won their only World Cup under a head coach who constructed the most sophisticated support infrastructure the sport had seen and who now, two decades later, may be the man best placed to build it again.<\/p>\n