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England wing Anthony Watson in the 'top one per cent'

Anthony Watson of Leicester warms up ahead of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Bristol Bears and Leicester Tigers at Ashton Gate on December 03, 2022 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)

Anthony Watson’s latest remarkable return from serious injury has seen Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick rate the England and British and Irish Lions wing in the “top one per cent” of players he has been involved with.

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Given Borthwick made a remarkable 265 Premiership appearances for Bath and Saracens – second only to fellow Tigers coach Richard Wigglesworth – captained England while winning 57 caps and helped coach Japan and England, means he has seen a lot of very good players during his career

Watson was signed from Bath by Borthwick ahead of this season while he was completing his recovery from ACL knee reconstruction and his battle against serious injury includes two Achilles ruptures in the space of 12 months.

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He will be on the wing against Clermont Auvergne in the Heineken Champions Cup tomorrow at Mattioli Woods Welford Road having helped the club defeat Ospreys last weekend with a brilliant solo try to remind everyone of his footwork and speed.

Borthwick, who could be making his final appearance at home as Tigers head coach before replacing Eddie Jones as England’s supremo, said: “Anthony is ultra, ultra-professional and the amount of time he spends in addition to team training to prepare and recover is phenomenal and he is up there in the top one per cent I have ever seen.

“He works very closely with Aled Walters (head of physical performance) and our medical team and has a programme outside the team training and also does all the team training. He has shown a robustness and resilience to add to that ultra professionalism.”

Watson has joined an outstanding group of young players that Borthwick believes will ensure a successful future – no matter who is in charge at Tigers. He added: “Ultimately, I’ve have to build a new team since I came in here two years ago and sign players from around the world. But at the same point in time, underneath coming through has been this core group: James Whitcombe, Joe Heyes, George Martin, Ollie Chessum, Lewis Chessum, Tommy Reffell, Jack van Poortvliet, Dan Kelly, Guy Porter, Freddie Steward and Harry Potter – I may have missed some. I see a group that is very, very tight.”

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RedWarrior 6 minutes ago
Many England fans echoing the same gripe following Six Nations loss

The English defense was excellent in the first half. This is considering Ireland's attack has improved significantly since the Autumn with former Leinster attack coach Goodman. Ireland were beaten by NZ in the Autumn, are behind SA and arguably behind France so de facto 4th in order (rankings take time to catch up) As Eddie Jones said Ireland are still in that elite group so England's domination in the first half is noteworthy.

I believe they have spent the time since the Autumn largely on defence. On broken play they were relying on Smiths instint along with some jiggery pokery. For Smiths early line break a Twindaloo blocked Baird which left the gap for smith. It looked like he did Aki, but Baird was a little late arriving and clever play by Tom Curry allowed the gap for Smith. Earls line break was Smith spotting Baird coming out and beating him with a beautiful pass to Earl.

We saw the rehearsed plays for a couple of Ireland's tries. The Aki try was just identifying that England tended to hide Smith on the wing creating a vulnerability which Ireland exploited with one of Akis great finishes.

Although Ireland were relaxing at the end the two English tries were good enough quality and we may see more of it next week (Scotland will also have taken note).

Although on the easier side of the draw Borthwick almost took England to a RWC final.

But in common with the top4 you need to have firepower to get those tries in big games. Can Borthwick manage that? I don't think so.

Next week even if England have a great first half again, you would be looking at France converting 3 of those Irish chances and pushing on after the break.

Can Borthwick develop a plan to beat France in the next few years. If the answer is no England need to find someone who can.

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TRENDING Many England fans echoing the same gripe following Six Nations loss Many England fans are saying the same thing after loss to Ireland
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