The Rugby Football Union (RFU) have backed Steve Borthwick to lead England to next year’s World Cup, despite the team posting its worst ever Six Nations results.
Two months after England finished second from bottom in this year’s tournament, an RFU statement said their review of the Six Nations by a panel of unnamed contributors, to which England players, coaches and staff contributed, had “highlighted a number of interconnected performance areas, such as discipline, execution of opportunities and making the most of key moments”.
Despite this wide-ranging criticism, Borthwick has held onto his job, rather than Twickenham parachuting in a replacement as they did when replacing Eddie Jones less than a year before the last World Cup.
The review admitted there was an “underperformance” in England’s unprecedented four defeats in five Six Nations matches, but decided it was not down to “a singular failure or issue”.
There are references to “the way in which the team aspires to play”, and to the close-run loss to France in the final Six Nations match, suggesting the confidential feedback has backed the more open and attacking game plan seen in that game in Paris.
The RFU’s most recent public backing given to Borthwick, after the historic first ever loss to Italy, had referred only to this summer’s Nations Championship, so this is a hardening of the position behind the 46-year-old who has been in charge since the start of 2023 and has yet to win a trophy.
Credit was given for the run of 12 straight wins preceding the Six Nations.
The statement lacked in-depth detail, with the RFU saying to go further would be to give a sporting advantage to rival countries – with world champions South Africa as the next opponents in Johannesburg in July.
Bill Sweeney, RFU chief executive, said in the statement: “This has been a thorough and honest review, and it is clear that improvement will come from addressing several areas rather than chasing one simple answer.
“We’ve all seen what this England side is capable of – most recently in the performance against France, and during the strong winning run before that.
“That doesn’t disappear overnight. The challenge now is delivering that level consistently, and we are confident this group can do that, supported by the insight and feedback this review has surfaced.
“This is a young England team that is still growing and developing, and we understand progress in international sport is rarely linear.
“Steve has engaged in this process with full openness and has clear plans in place to address these findings. We are all behind him and his coaching team going into the Nations Championship and the series of matches leading into Rugby World Cup 2027.”