By Ollie Phillips
Having watched how England faded in the Calcutta Cup I do fear it could be one long year for fans of the Red Rose.
Steve Borthwick’s luck started this year with back-to-back Test wins against Italy and Wales – who themselves are going through rebuilds of sorts.
But after their loss to Scotland last weekend the England head coach blamed inexperience in the midfield, something I just can’t comprehend.
England unease
Danny Care has 99 caps and George Ford, Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade have over 150 international appearances between them. It’s just not a valid excuse.
And there’s a pretty realistic scenario where England lose to Ireland at Twickenham next weekend and then against France in Lyon to finish their Six Nations campaign in a state of disappointment.
I just question whether Borthwick is an international coach. I see him like Exeter Chiefs’ Rob Baxter, whereby he needs day-to-day nurturing time with players rather than flash in the pan camps where the pressure is higher. After all, his culture-centric approach was key to Leicester Tigers’ Premiership success two years back.
And it doesn’t get easier for England and Borthwick after the Six Nations.
England take on Japan in June and therefore reacquaint themselves with Eddie Jones – who left the Red Rose job in December 2022.
They then head south for two matches against the All Blacks in New Zealand – in Dunedin Auckland. That could be… interesting.
I just think the Kiwis have something special about them again and though they’re not the unbeatable team of old – proven by Ireland’s series win down there recently – they’ll be a different beast against England.
Without a win in rest of 2024?
And if that wasn’t difficult enough for England it gets a lot worse for them in the autumn with home matches against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan.
To put it mildly, that’s bloody tough.
England can’t play the rebuild line like Wales, who are clearly looking at a brand new spine during this Six Nations campaign.
And they also can’t claim Jones is the reason for the team’s jet lag from an era gone by.
This is Borthwick’s England, their results rest on him. There’s nowhere to hide.
After this year’s Six Nations there will be a refresh of the coaching team, but that’s not to say it’ll lead to the necessary changes to turn England into a consistently winning side.
It is hard to put your finger on one specific issue with England at the moment but the way they faded against Scotland will worry Borthwick.
And it should worry fans too.
We were promised that there would be effort put into loving the shirt again, where the white jerseys donned by those lucky few mean as much to them as they do to us.
Right now the two look like they couldn’t be any further apart. And that’s mighty worrying.
Former England Sevens Captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance, experts in leadership development behavioural change and executive coaching support. Follow Ollie on Twitter and on LinkedIn @OlliePhillips11
