England heading to the Badlands

STEVE Borthwick has taken a fork in the road which has led England into the Badlands of international rugby. With two weeks to go until England start their 2023 World Cup campaign against Argentina in Marseille his team looks high and dry.

- NICK CAIN

The picture of Borthwick’s Red Rose ranks wilting in the warm-up heat was reinforced with a vengeance yesterday as Twickenham witnessed one of the worst days in England’s history when they lost to Fiji.

It left a warm-up ledger of three losses and just one win in the last month, and the Fiji debacle on top of dire defeats to Ireland and Wales – with only a late rally in the Welsh return leg at Twickenham earning a skin-of-the-teeth verdict – has left the impression of England staggering to the starting line.

With new injuries ending the tournament hopes of Anthony Watson, and possibly Elliot Daly, and the high-tackle suspensions of Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola, their reserves of energy and inspiration are at a low ebb with few signs of sustenance on the horizon.

Eddie Jones, and his long-time advocate, RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney, share most of the responsibility for England’s decline. The cardinal error made by former coach Jones was wasting 18 months by failing to identify the young players required to rebuild a squad which had become dispirited and stale following defeat in the 2019 World Cup final.

The biggest mistake made by Sweeney, and RFU performance director Conor O’Shea, was not recognising that Jones had given England his best shot in his first four years in charge. Their serial failures to conduct a review process which was robust enough to hold Jones to account has been central to England’s current downward spiral.

A further massive negative was Sweeney’s decision, in collusion with Premiership club owners, to ring-fence the top league in 2021, following years of restrictive ground and funding barriers to prevent Championship clubs being promoted.