Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Recently departed England coach names 4 players Borthwick needs back

England's Joe Launchbury takes part in a training session of England's rugby team at the Latymer Sports Ground, in west London, on February 16, 2022 ahead of the Six Nations rugby union international match against Wales. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Former England forwards coach Matt Proudfoot has spoken out about the players he believes Steve Borthwick’s side need back if they are to turn around the fortunes of their floundering team.

ADVERTISEMENT

His comments come on the back of England’s soul-destroying 53-10 loss to France, which has left the side in crisis heading to Dublin for a Six Nations Super Saturday decider with Grand Slam hopefuls Ireland.

“Where do you start processing that loss? Because so much of their game fell to pieces. The pack was poor. The kicking was poor,” said Proudfoot. “Where do they go to? They go to a side who are ruthless in attack, who wants the ball and can play through long phases.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

“Eddie [Jones] wanted to go [with] a real power game. To compete with the southern hemisphere teams, you need a power game. He tried to go superpower, that’s why Owen [Farrell] went into flyhalf.

“So you can see the selection model now, do they go a high continuity side with Smith at ten, or do they stick with Farrell at ten and go a more traditional kicking game with a power game, so I think this whole flux of where they are, depends on selection at ten.”

Proudfoot, who left the role shortly after the departure of Eddie Jones as head coach at the end of 2022, was known for his emphasis on physicality and set-piece play during his time with England, believes a lack of hard-men up front is hurting Borthwick’s side.

Speaking from his current role as a university head coach in South Africa, Proudfoot named Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tom Curry, Courtney Lawes and forgotten Test lock Joe Launchbury as players whose absence has been felt in an England pack who are struggling to exert physicality.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Their big guns up front, they’re missing Cowan-Dickie at hooker, who adds a lot upfront. They’re missing Tom Curry and they’re missing Courtney Lawes. It’s half their pack.

“They’re probably missing a Launchbury in the second row. So they’re missing a big chunk of what their pack could be.”

Related

Exeter hooker Cowan-Dickie is injured and headed to Montpellier at the end of the season, while Sale Sharks loose forward Curry is recovering from a hamstring injury. Lawes, who featured against Wales earlier in the tournament, is fighting his way back to full fitness from within the squad.

Launchbury on the other hand, is currently playing in Japan; the former Wasps’ star having been considered surplus to requirements under the Eddie Jones regime.

ADVERTISEMENT

“You could see which side they are going to go. The English press are pushing them to Smith and a more continuity-based side – where Ireland are.

“Probably the traditionalists are wanting them to play a big maul, a big scrum, a big kicking game. You can see half the camp, the Saracens boys on this side, and the Harlequins are sitting in that camp, wanting to play a more unstructured game.”

It remains to be seen whether Borthwick’s side will be able to turn their form around against Ireland, but the return of key players could eventually provide a much-needed boost.

Related

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

144 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ 'Springbok Galacticos can't go it alone for trophy-hunting Sharks' 'Springbok Galacticos can't go it alone for trophy-hunting Sharks'
Search