WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR ENGLAND AT THE WORLD CUP....

England have dropped like a stone since reaching the final of Japan 2019. But could Steve Borthwick's embattled squad spring a surprise at the World Cup in France?

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

IT WAS Steve Borthwick himself who perhaps best outlined the scale of the challenge facing him as England head coach. It was early February, Borthwick had just lost his first game in charge, and the considered Cumbrian was assessing the state of the side he’d taken over a month and a half earlier.

“When I looked at the team in the autumn, when I measured the team and got all the data, we weren’t good at anything,” Borthwick remarked. “It was as frank as that.”

Rarely has any English side entered the run-up to a tournament with such low expectations. The best resourced of the Six Nations teams hasn’t been in championship contention in the last three campaigns. The past 12 months has brought home defeats to Argentina, South Africa, Scotland and, by a record margin, France. An entire World Cup cycle has been squandered.

For an idea of the uncertainty with which England entered the World Cup summer, try penning Borthwick’s preferred England 23 – it’s a job best performed with the Tipp-Ex close at hand. No wonder, then, that England’s head coach found plenty to chew over when he and Owen Farrell gathered for a preliminary plotting session in mid-June.

“We spent nearly two hours walking around fields outside Harpenden, talking about everything we wanted to do with this team, everything we wanted to do with this programme and what we wanted to achieve,” Borthwick said of the rural Hertfordshire ramble with his chosen captain.