Time for Borthwick to prove his worth

HONEYMOON periods are not set in stone and in my estimation Steve Borthwick’s ends this summer. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still in good shape.

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

There is an acknowledgement that England have made decent strides forward and RFU CEO Bill Sweeney and indeed the players seem fully behind Borthwick. The England coach doesn’t go round needling people – players or media – and there is very little to get hot under the collar about. He has lowered the temperature of the entire England scene.

But the sudden and frankly unexplained departures of key backroom staff recently has been unsettling to say the least while New Zealand’s subsequent defeat to Argentina and then their two losses in South Africa have rather emphasised that England in fact blew a rare chance to take their summer series against the All Blacks. Could that have been managed a little better? Was it quite as positive as everybody made out?

It also seems to me the new PGP agreement leaves a huge onus on Borthwick himself to make it work through his empathetic interaction with individual directors of rugby.

When it comes to England and their medical team demanding a player be rested at club level, little is actually set down in stone, there is no black and white contract he can enforce, it’s the England coach who must somehow set the new parameters without upsetting everybody. That’s a big burden and methinks there could be trouble ahead. Not for the first time you are left wondering why England don’t have a DoR figure of their own to deal with such matters, the line manager Clive Woodward has always argued for and indeed at one stage wanted to be. The anti Woodward brigade at Twickenham have always cravenly dismissed what is manifestly a good idea. Let the coach do his stuff and build a team, let a DoR with broad shoulders do all the politics and take the heat.