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Ex England captain claims Borthwick's team in midst of 'identity crisis'
By Ian Cameron
England captain Dylan Hartley has voiced a concern that Steve Borthwick’s England is grappling with an identity crisis.
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Hartley suggests that the team’s recent performances reflect a deeper issue than just fluctuating form or a run of bad luck. It’s about the how England want to play the game; an essence that seems to be slipping through their fingers as they struggle to find a cohesive and defining style of play.
Rumours this week suggest unrest in camp around the team’s lack of attacking ambition, with players privately questioning the heavy emphasis and Borthwick’s conservative kick and blitz approach.
“When you think about this England team, there is a big question around identity – there doesn’t seem to be one thing that you can hang your hat on and say “yes” that’s what this team is good at.
“When I look at England, I see a team that are trying to evolve their attacking game along with trying to have a world-class set piece, and a ’new level’ of defence, and at the moment, the defence is leaky and is exposing them. If you look at what the All Blacks do, it’s such a low-risk defence. They’re just up and out.
“They might concede five or ten yards, but then someone like Sam Cane or Ardie Savea can kind of seduce you into thinking that you’re making inroads, and they turn you over. There is an identity issue that England need to address. I’d like to see what parts of the game they can hang their hat on when the going gets tough. At Twickenham, if it starts pissing down with rain and they can expose Andrew Porter’s shoulder, it would be lovely to fall back on to a set piece and a watertight hard-nosed defence.”
Hartley contrasted Borthwick’s regime unfavourably with controversial ex-head coach Eddie Jones, implying Jones was way ahead in terms of making England a cohesive force.
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“When Eddie Jones came into the team, he empowered the players. He focussed on two things: having the best set piece in the world and a world class defence built on attitude and pressure.
“He said that when he coached Australia, they deep down feared the England set piece. He feared our scrum. He feared our maul. He wanted us to be the best in the world at set piece and we practiced a lot. We talked the talk daily then ultimately started walking the walk.
“These are your fundamentals, your bread and butter. Without set piece, you struggle to win games. I think when refs and opposition know that you have that, it’s almost like your trump card.
“If there’s a scenario in the game where the balls knocked on, and you know you’re going to scrum, no worries. You can win the ball back. When we did knock the ball on, everyone in the team believed that we would win the ball back from the resulting scrum because we loved scrums.
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“That was our mindset. It’s powerful. The second thing we focussed on was defensive attitude and pressure. Those were the two things we hung our hat on. He said to us: “We’re good rugby players. We have a good attacking shape, but the two things I want us to be best in the world at are defence and set piece.”
“By delivering that message to the players daily, he had an empowering effect on our mentality. If a coach goes into a team and says that they can do everything without having that proof in the pudding, I don’t think that’s very empowering,” said Hartley.
Clear as day they have an identity crises. Borthers is finding the rugby in his DNA isn't going to work at international level with this group of players and he's now trying to implement something that's not natural to him. There is no clear direction. If you're playing for Scotland you know what the coach wants. If you're playing for England there must be so many different things running through your head that it's impossible to play in the moment and that's reflected in the basic errors and general confusion.