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Borthwick: Clash with Farrell and what pleased him most about England
By Liam Heagney
England boss Steve Borthwick has played down his half-time incident with Ireland coach Andy Farrell. The respective head coaches exchanged words at Twickenham with the Irish 8-12 ahead at the break, but it was Borthwick who had the final say as his team hit back to dramatically seal a 23-22 win with a last-gasp Marcus Smith drop goal on a penalty advantage.
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The result shattered Irish hopes of winning unprecedented back-to-back Guinness Six Nations Grand Slams while it also ensured that the 2024 title race will go down to the final weekend with Ireland hosting Scotland and England taking on France next Saturday.
Regardless of that outcome, England’s round four win over Ireland has ensured that they will finish the championship with more wins than losses for the first time since 2020, ending fears they were on the cusp of finishing out this year’s campaign badly on the back of their underwhelming 21-30 February 24 loss to Scotland.
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The English response – beating Ireland by a point and eclipsing them 3-2 on the try count – left Borthwick chuffed in the aftermath. “The thing that pleased me the most was post the defeat in Scotland when I have seen teams get pulled in all kinds of different directions,” he enthused.
“I saw that in my time as a player, I have seen it as an assistant coach here. What pleased me the most was that the players stayed absolutely true to the path we are trying to follow and tried to take the next step for progress and they applied themselves.
“We asked them to do things a little bit differently and they did that led by the man next to me [Jamie George] and that takes a lot of courage to try and do things a bit differently. They have done that and we will do that again next week. I want an improved performance against France.”
Asked what had taken place at the interval with Farrell, he said: “That’s between Andy and I. I know people want to read into things but Andy and I have a good relationship.
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“We were co-captains together at Saracens as players, we coached together on the Lions in 2017 and I have an incredible respect for him and what he has done with that team which, as I say, is a phenomenal team.”
So all good then? “Absolutely fine. Andy and I have known each other for a long time, we played with each other for England. We both represented England in the 2007 World Cup, so we go back a long way and what he has done with the Ireland team is just incredible, very special. They are an incredible team and I thought today was a very special Test match.”
The English Test victory was quite the step forward given how widely they were written off on the back of their Scottish Gas Murrayfield capitulation. “I’m really pleased for the players,” added the coach.
“They worked exceptionally hard since we came together in Girona a few weeks ago and we have been progressing each week and aspects of our game have been improving each week but for the players to have the tangible reward of the victory today against such a good team, that’s important.
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“And it’s also really important for the supporters. Jamie has said many times about how he wants to make the supporters feel, how he wants the supporters to enjoy it and bring them on the journey with us.
“I thought Twickenham was magnificent tonight, the supporters left with a smile on their face as well. For us, we will enjoy this tonight and ensure we will be better next week… We concentrate very much on our progression; the team has been progressing and the team has progressed each week.
What Andy Farrell and Steve Borthwick had to say post-game following their half-time tunnel incident, from Liam Heagney ?? at Twickenham #ENGvIRE #IrelandRugby #EnglandRugby #GuinnessM6N #rugby pic.twitter.com/UFFsPu12cf
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 9, 2024
“Sometimes it is really visible and everybody sees it and everybody talks about it and sometimes it’s not as visible. Sometimes it’s not as overt but the team has been progressing and that has been the message we talk about, keep moving forward and that’s what we will continue to do.
“We have got a long way to go as a team. We’re four games in and on this journey this is another step in the right direction. The first period was trying to get a team ready to try and win the World Cup and now we are four games into trying to build a new team, a new way of talking about the evolution of the team.
“This is an important step in the evolution of the team. It’s a step but we need to take another step next week.”
Andy was just channeling his inner Johnny Sexton.