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'Steve's brave': Leicester boss Borthwick is impressing Saracens

(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Back-at-work Saracens boss Mark McCall has saluted the excellent Leicester transformation orchestrated this season by Steve Borthwick, the London club’s second row when they defeated Tigers to win their breakthrough Premiership title in 2011. 

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Leicester boss Borthwick spent the last six seasons of his playing career at Saracens where he had McCall as boss for three-and-a-half years as well as another season-and-a-half as an assistant coach before Brendan Venter moved on in the winter of 2010/11. 

Having skippered Saracens under McCall and then earned his coaching stripes as a Test level assistant under Eddie Jones with Japan and England, Borthwick took over as the Leicester head coach in summer 2020. Results were initially hard to come by in the restarted 2019/20 Premiership and again in last season, his first full campaign in charge. 

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Le French Rugby Podcast – Episode 19

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However, the groundwork laid during at time has now helped to transform the fortunes of Leicester as they were leading the Premiership by 16 points from second place Saracens heading into this weekend’s round of matches.  

That pole position status is a far cry from the back-to-back 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons where the Tigers finished eleventh and they would likely have been relegated in that second season if the authorities hadn’t automatically demoted Saracens to the second tier due to repeated salary cap breaches.  

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The London club is back enjoying their first campaign back in the top flight and while McCall missed their last four matches due to a break to take care of a medical issue, he returned to work last week on their bye-week and will be in charge when Leicester visit the StoneX Arena for this Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash.  

McCall will welcome his ex-player with open arms and he told RugbyPass during the build-up to the game how highly he rated the rebuild job Borthwick has done at Leicester. “Absolutely brilliant,” he enthused. 

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“Steve is brave, to begin with, because he embedded the system that he wanted them to play and that was always going to take some time, but he didn’t mind losing a few matches along the way to get that in place. He rotated his squad in a huge way, rewarded people for training effort and that kind of thing.

“Although they lost some games he built trust in the group that if a player delivered on the field you would get picked and you can see all of that now with the mix in their teams, some hugely experienced players in the spine of their team and some really good young players coming through. They are all comfortable playing what is a very territorial-based game that most teams can’t cope with that

“I guess, hats off to Steve for doing this as quickly as he has done. To be 15 wins out of 17 games and 70 points at this point of the season is an incredible effort by them. They are so consistent week-on-week, so it will be a heck of a challenge for us this weekend.”

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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