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Four England talking points after latest damaging Six Nations loss
By Liam Heagney at Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Another year, another false England start under Steve Borthwick. It’s the same old script from his team, plenty of promise that goes up in a puff of smoke when the pressure becomes its most unbearable. Saturday in Dublin was no different. Here are the RugbyPass talking points from the latest English mishap:
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Meaningless chit-chat
Steve Borthwick remains a tough post-game listen. The opening round match at Aviva Stadium was the 24th time in the head coach’s 29-match tenure that this writer was there in person to hear his musings and his first answer highlighted the continuing limit of his ambitions.
“I am very proud of how the players, one, attacked the game in the first half and, two, in the final quarter the way they came back and ultimately scored a couple of tries to get us the bonus point here.” Is that what England are about these days in the Six Nations, grabbing clock-in-the-red losing bonus points?
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Their language should be winning titles, not meaningless chit-chat. You just can’t imagine any English rugby fan worth his salt ‘celebrating’ the point that Tommy Freeman’s garbage time try secured. Truth be told, England had been stuffed, soundly beaten 10-27 before their two late, late consolations materialised.
A run of two meagre wins in nine matches, both successes coming versus the in-decline Japan, make it hard to keep buying into Borthwick’s echo chamber platitudes about alleged progress, improvements and all the rest.
This a floundering coach who continues to look out of his depth as a Test-level head boss. Twickenham defeats in the coming weeks against France and Scotland and that will surely be that for his joyless reign. His position will be untenable.
Dub ‘bomb’ squad
England’s attempt to grow a ‘bomb’ squad element to their game with the selection of six sub forwards continued to be a saga of self-inflicted wounds. In Ireland, Chandler Cunningham-South was the biggest culprit just minutes after his introduction.
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A more disciplined run to close down Hugo Keenan would have seen England contest a breakdown a decent distance inside Irish territory with the score remaining at 10-13.
Instead, his unnecessary, mistimed collision brought the pressure-relieving penalty that was transformed a minute or so later into the try for Tadhg Beirne that irrevocably swung the result in Ireland’s favour.
None of the English bench impressed when the game was in the balance… and it isn’t the first time this has recently happened.
For instance, while Theo Dan did keep the lineout ticking along, away from the throw he again played like he is running in quicksand.
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His fortunes since becoming one of the 17 enhanced elite contracted RFU players last October have been dire, just two sub appearances in five Test matches.
When he first emerged on the Test scene, he beat players for fun and chalked up generous yardage. That evasiveness is now elusive, unlike his opposite number Dan Sheehan, who was gleefully running in a try on his return from serious injury.
For those throwing the mud, the truth is @cadan_murley scored a try, assisted another & made a try saving tackle, alongside other positive additions to Englands performance. He made a couple of mistakes, who doesn’t on their debut!! But overall, he should be proud, I hope he is
— Will Carling (@willcarling) February 1, 2025
Don’t scapegoat Murley
The debut-making Caden Murley came in for much criticism post-game, with rabbit caught in headlights amongst the withering descriptions. Thing is, it wasn’t down his wing that England lost this match.
Yes, he was concerningly bottled up twice by the Irish at his team’s goal line in the second half, but he shouldn’t be the fall guy for the defeat. After all, he scored the opening try and gave the assist for England’s second. That’s credit in the bank.
Instead, missed tackles elsewhere hurt far worse. Take the starting English eight, nine, 10, 12 combination. Between them, Ben Earl, Alex Mitchell, Marcus Smith and Henry Slade 16 missed tackles – far too many for a defensive performance that was “improved”, according to Borthwick.
Not that the Irish were polished; their eight, nine, 10, 12 quartet missed 11 tackles. It was just that the English misses were costlier, further evidence that their collective defending under rookie assistant Joe El-Abd has a long way to go before becoming Test-level acceptable.
In attack and defence ??No mercy ??#GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/gFkrlqSjZg
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 1, 2025
Not all doom and gloom
It would be unfair on England if this RugbyPass review was completely doom and gloom. After all they were deserving 10-5 interval leaders before they were gassed.
Nothing gladdened the heart more than seeing Tom Curry survive and thrive. Along with twin brother Ben, they were a nuisance at the breakdown in slowing down the Irish attack.
Also worthy of kudos was how Ollie Lawrence fared. Four years ago, he was sold a pup in his first England start and totally starved of the ball against Scotland in London.
He was then only a bench player at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, but his game has now taken multiple steps forward, and he very much looks the part as an international midfielder.
His tackling was on the money, and he also exhibited the invaluable knack of beating defenders on the carry, including the gallop that was the catalyst for England’s first try.
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The players have to play to the " gameplay " they trained for , instructed by the coaches .
England looked lost when Ireland upped the ante.
In contrast all the Irish players looked far better coached and attacked in unity .
Also
To criticise a 1.75 and 13 stone ball player for not being able to tackle expertly is like criticising Maro Itoje for not having a decent sidestep . Stupid.
Anyone knows a retreating pack makes the life of the 9 and 10 very difficult and this where the game turned .
That and silly penalties , dropped balls etc etc .
Borthwick will be here for a while But the team is crying out for better direction from the coaches .
Is the RFU listening .
Never Marcus' fault! Always someone else must be to blame!
A smart tactical ten would put his forwards on the front foot more often. But Marcus has proven repeatedly that he can't do that
Everyone talking about getting rid of Borthwick. No one seems to have any suggestions about who could replace him. All the best coaches are contracted to Unions until at least the next world cup.
I agree, Borthwick should stay, but I guess O'Gara, van Graan, Lancaster, Dawson would be options?
Disagree.
Ireland played poorly in the 1st half, yes. But they were stupid not to take a few three pointers in that first half and could very easily have been in the lead at half time.
Ireland had most of the territory advantage and England were happy to keep infringing in defence.
There were two periods of three penalties against England in quick succession.
Had Ireland taken two of the easiest three pointers, they would have advanced back into Englands half and picked up another and/or gone to the corner for a try.
England were lucky Ireland were stubbornly looking for the try. Instead of punishing England for their poor discipline. And creating scoreboard pressure.
Fortunately Ireland played themselves into the game on the second half - and England exhausted themselves with their blitz defence which looks like a constant panic stricken affair. Difficult to watch.
Yup. Unfortunately it’s going to be another lost year for England. WHEN Borthwick is rightly dispatched as England’s coach, in time for the Autumn series, the incoming coach is going to have 2 years to get this team ready for 2027.
Fortunately England has a lot of good, young players. Just no game plan. So a decent coach could do well.
If England hangs on to Borthwick for another full year - it will only make it tougher for the new coach having to walk into the next 6 Nations with not a lot of time.
So in other words, start looking for a new coach NOW! Put Borthwick on notice. He’s been a disaster.
He should’ve been fired already.
"the incoming coach is going to have 2 years to get this team ready for 2027."
There is a global tournament in 2026 in the inaugural Nations Cup. This will take in 6N results; RC results in a top 12 competition with knockouts played over a few weeks.
France are eyeing this, I guarantee Rassie is. I am not sure of the exact format but it will be a coveted global title secondary to RWC.
He should never have been appointed in the first place but after Jones there was desperation for an English coach again and he had some international experience and had turned Tigers around (although they were really poor when the RFU came knocking),
I think Borthwick is probably a very good number two or specialist coach (say line out) but he’s clearly not a head coach nor is he a leader. His coaching tenure at inter level is very much like his period as England captain; dour, listless and full of so called positives.
I fear we’re stuck with him though due to lack of funds and a lack of decent alternatives.
Agreed. It's clear Borthwick doesn't have what it takes. He will be sacked sooner or later. They should cut their losses asap and get in someone more creative like O'Gara with more time to build for RWC. Failing that, get Stuart Lancaster in to replace Wigglesworth. At the very minimum a fresh voice is needed.
Selection continues to be the issue. Henry Slade for all the hyperbole isn't a test centre. He's had almost 70 caps and has never dominated a tier one team. It time to try a new 12.
Marcus Smith is a class player but he's not going to win us multiple test matches, regardless of what Danny Care keeps putting in the media. It's time for George Ford and Fin Smith to get a run.
One thing that has become abundantly clear to me is that Marcus Smith should not play at fullback. Bring him off the bench at 10. His attacking style suits the last 10 or 20 minutes if you’ve got the ascendancy.
Will we see Finn Smith start at 10 for England?
I suspect that Borthwick wouldn’t experiment at 10 against France. And I suspect Marcus Smith will start at 10 AGAIN!
If I was an England fan I’d start a riot. Or, better yet, start supporting the springboks out of disgust.
Slade was important to running the Felix Jones defence, but now that El-Abd is moving away from that we need to start selecting a proper 12. Butt, Atkinson, and Ojomoh all look great in the prem, but Borthwick is addicted only ever including 13s in the squad (even Dingwall is, at best, a 12-and-a-half).
Completely agree on Marcus Smith. If you look at Borthwick's tenure but ignore all the matches that Marcus Smith has started, England suddenly start to look like a really elite test side. No factor has ever correlated as strongly with losing rugby matches as the selection of Marcus Smith.