Borthwick ‘perfect person’ to take England to World Cup

Veteran hooker Jamie George says England ‘”will be right up there with the favourites to win the World Cup” under Steve Borthwick’s leadership.

A Rugby Football Union review into their disappointing Six Nations performance will begin in the coming days with the head coach under scrutiny after his side finished fifth in the table.

England won only one of their five matches – a 48-7 thrashing of Wooden Spoon ‘winners’ Wales in the opening round – and lost four games for the first time in Six Nations history.

A strong showing in their final match against eventual champions France in Paris, where only Thomas Ramos’ last-gasp penalty denied them a stunning victory, has raised spirits.

However, over the next few weeks a group of senior rugby figures, drawn from inside and outside the RFU, will collect feedback from coaches and players about what went wrong during a challenging campaign.

Defending champions South Africa and France are the current favourites to win the 2027 World Cup, which is due to start in Australia in October, but George backed Borthwick to find the solutions to England’s problems to make them contenders.

“Steve is one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked under,” said the British and Irish Lions hooker, 35.

“Under Steve I think we will be right up there with the favourites to win the World Cup. We’re a great team, a great group of players and he’s the perfect person to take us there.

“He has been unbelievable for English rugby. It’s crazy what has been happening over the last few weeks and he is absolutely the right man to lead us forward for a long time.

“That’s because he’s an English coach who cares so much about this game, but he’s also a very, very good coach who has created an excellent programme. When you combine that with a good group of players it’s a recipe for success.

While a review is standard practice, the findings will be eagerly anticipated after England, who had won 11 straight matches coming into the tournament, fell out of title contention so quickly and dramatically.

After a first defeat by Italy in 33 Test meetings last weekend, RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said the organisation “remained fully committed to supporting” Borthwick and his staff despite “hugely disappointing” results.

“We will work together to understand and rectify why we have been unable to meet the expectations and anticipation going into these games,” he added.

Borthwick’s predecessor Eddie Jones was endorsed after a similar investigation into England’s last fifth-placed finish in the Six Nations in 2021.

Five years on, few of those will be factors in 2026’s under-performance.

Borthwick has a large backroom staff, led by senior assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth, who oversees defence, with Lee Blackett – recruited from Premiership champions Bath – in charge of the attack.

Kevin Sinfield (kicking and skills), Tom Harrison (scrum), Joe El-Abd (forwards) and Byron McGuigan (contact and back three) were also part of the Six Nations set-up.

The Professional Game Partnership, launched in 2024, also means England have greater control over their top players’ preparation and medical treatment.

However, 15 of their players were part of the summer’s British and Irish Lions hectic tour to Australia.

Itoje, who exceeded guideline limits on the number of minutes top players should play in 2023-24, led the tourists to a 2-1 series win in another busy campaign.

The 2021 review called for more refereeing input in England’s preparations, given their indiscipline. The team has fallen foul of the officials once more this year, with eight yellow cards shown to them across the five matches.

Matt Dawson and Paul Grayson, both part of England’s Rugby World Cup-winning squad of 2003, believes the answer to ironing out the team’s inconsistencies is within the players themselves.

“I would direct it all at the players,” Dawson told Rugby Union Weekly.

“They were accountable against France, they took responsibility for that and got themselves into a frenzied, physical state to take France apart.

“I saw the players owning it today.”

Grayson added: “The best teams are player-led, not coach-led.