by Steve Borthwick has claimed his England players were not fit enough for Test rugby at the start of their autumn internationals after defeat to South Africa on Saturday extended their dismal losing run.
In something of a tacit admission that Aled Walters’ departure was clearly felt, Borthwick risked the wrath of Premiership clubs by declaring that the “condition” of his players at the start of the season was not “as it should be “. Month.
England have lost all three autumn Tests and five games in a row for the first time since 2018. Borthwick has insisted he has “absolute support” from the Rugby Football Union and it is understood his employers have no desire to sack the head coach despite England’s plight.
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On the eve of England’s autumn season, the RFU announced that 17 players would be given extended contracts as part of the new eight-year, £264m Professional Game Partnership, which would give Borthwick more control over its squad, particularly their strength and conditioning. It should also lead to greater convergence in playing styles.
Over the summer, Borthwick suffered a setback when Walters, its former head of strength and conditioning, resigned and moved to Ireland. Long-time strength and conditioning coach Tom Tombleson also left in the summer, and although he was replaced by Dan Tobin, Borthwick was unable to bring in Phil Morrow from Saracens to replace Walters in the autumn.
Ahead of England’s first defeat of the autumn against New Zealand, Borthwick took his squad to a warm-weather training camp in Girona but believes his players were not in form at the start of the season. In defeats against New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, England struggled in the final 20 minutes. Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus questioned whether England had the fitness to sustain their aggressive defense ahead of his side’s 29-20 win at Twickenham.
After the defeat, Borthwick said: “Obviously we’ve played against a number of very good teams that have come out of the Rugby Championship, so they’re Test match tested.” At the start of this series they looked at the condition of the players and found that he wasn’t quite where he needed to be for Test match rugby, for teams going straight into Test match rugby.”
England end their autumn campaign on Sunday against Eddie Jones’ Japan in a game they are expected to win comfortably. Jones was in charge the last time England lost five in a row before Danny Cipriani scored a hard-fought win over South Africa in Cape Town. Borthwick was Jones’ assistant at the time and revealed the pair had been in contact last week. The pressure on him will increase if Japan pulls off a surprise victory.
Borthwick, who was at the Stoop on Sunday to catch a glimpse of a number of England hopefuls in the senior team’s 38-17 victory over their Australian counterparts, is expected to make changes to his matchday squad. Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso are likely to be available again after missing Saturday’s loss due to head injuries. Borthwick is desperate to halt the decline before planning a Six Nations campaign that begins against Ireland and France.
“I think we have a lot of very good players in our squad,” he said. “I expect there will be one or two changes [Saturday’s] squad. We will prepare for it as best we can. Our goal is to deliver a performance that is above our previous level.”
England conceded 12 tries in their three autumn games and also lost their defense coach Felix Jones in the summer. Borthwick, who appointed Joe El-Abd in his place, admitted the defense needed to improve but full-back Freddie Steward strongly backed the head coach and insisted the players had to take the blame.
“We almost let him down,” Steward said. “I don’t think the blame should be on him at all. As players, we had a game plan that put us in a position to win this game [against South Africa]. We have to think about why we didn’t pull away at the end and get back in the lead.”
