Borthwick begins work building partnership with Premiership

STEVE Borthwick is determined to usher in an era of co-operation with the leading clubs and has scrapped a two-day England training camp ahead of the Six Nations so that preparations for the following league round are not disrupted.

- PAUL REES

Instead, players will gather for a couple of afternoons early in January having trained with their clubs in the morning and will have one-on-one meetings with head coach Borthwick and his assistants.

Borthwick said last year that he preferred hard work to the potential holiday camp atmosphere of a warm-weather training camp. While Ireland were in Portugal before the start of this year's Six Nations and Scotland in Spain, the new head coach abandoned his predecessor Eddie Jones's plan to fly to Portugal and England remained at their Bagshot base.

"Steve was with us today (Tuesday), along with Richard Wigglesworth," said Alex Sanderson, above right, Sale's director of rugby. "They have work-on points for the players, no more than two or three, and he came to discuss them first.

"He talked about a change of policy from the two-day training camp, which disrupts preparation for that week's game, which in our case is Bristol. He will have a couple of afternoons with the players which means they can train with their clubs in the morning and get more one-on-one coaching with the England coaches.

"It suggests a better working relationship, one that is compassionate and considerate in terms of what we have to work with and I guess that is because he has been there more recently (as Leicester's head coach until last December).

"I sense there is going to be a change of emphasis and that after the review of the World Cup they will move the game forward, telling players what they are going after.

"Steve inherited a side and did an amazing job to make them competitive in France. Who would have predicted before the start of the World Cup that they would be within a minute of beating South Africa in the semi-final?