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The changes Borthwick has noticed in England skipper Owen Farrell
By Liam Heagney
Steve Borthwick has outlined the leadership difference he has noticed in Owen Farrell this year compared to when he previously worked with the England skipper. The current head coach, who took over the role last December when Eddie Jones was sacked, had served as forwards coach from 2016 through to the pandemic suspension of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations.
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The coach switched over to Leicester, becoming head coach at Welford Road and guiding them to Gallagher Premiership glory in June 2022 against Farrell’s Saracens before taking up the RFU offer six months later to succeed Jones as England boss.
That resulted in him going back to work with Farrell at Test level and there were rocky moments encountered last spring during an underwhelming Six Nations, most notably the dropping of the captain to the bench for the round four championship match with France.
However, Borthwick believes the pair have now reached an understanding that can serve England well as they look to stop their current results rot and produce at the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.
“There is a three-year gap in my experience of working with Owen,” began Borthwick, who has named Farrell as his World Cup skipper and has selected him to start at fly-half in this Saturday’s Summer Nations Series clash with Wales at Twickenham.
“We have discussed what has changed and developed and I think he has changed through that period, as we all have. He has changed his leadership style, there is that balance. He still has that inner competitiveness that we all see in him. He has also developed the ability to recognise when that coolness and calmness is required.
“And he has added a lot of skills to his leadership. Through the Six Nations, there was a period of he and I understanding how each other was working, trying to understand each other. Now we are pretty clear how we want to work together.”
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Farrell led England to the World Cup final in Japan four years ago and ahead of the latest RWC campaign beginning on September 9 versus Argentina in Marseille, he said: “The dream is always to be in the big game at the end and to go as far as you can. All our focus is on that.”
It will be a steep climb to get there. England under Borthwick have won just twice in six outings, but the increasingly loud outside noise about their struggles isn’t being entertained inside the camp.
“Whether we are going in as favourites or going in under the radar we will hopefully use it to our advantage either way. We are where we are at the minute, we are working hard quietly to be the best that we can be.
“Tournament rugby is a lot about pressure, the World Cup. It’s bigger than everything else you play. There is more eyes, there’s more noise, there is more outside noise especially and the nice thing maybe at times for us is that we might not have as much of that. I don’t know. It might be in a different way. Who knows?
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“But the big thing for me is focus on what is in camp. We focus on what we can control and not let the other stuff creep in and use it well. That is what we will be doing. We will be making sure we don’t get in our own way because of external factors that don’t really matter in I’m honest. We’ll look forward to try and get the best out of ourselves either way.
“The whole thing for the team has been to get the most out of ourselves now. We know what a big tournament is coming up and we are looking forward to it.
“The opportunity is brilliant for us but all our focus is on making sure we are becoming a better rugby team now and we have been doing that over the past few weeks and now the squad has been selected we can really rip into that even more now.”
World Cup 2023 will be Farrell’s third after wildly different previous campaigns, England enduring pool stage elimination in 2015 before coming good four years later in Japan to reach the final after a run that included a spectacular semi-final success to dethrone New Zealand, the back-to-back 2011 and 2015 champions.
“It’s not just the last World Cup, there has been a few now that I have been involved in before and they have been both ends of the spectrum,” said Farrell when asked what influence his previous RWC experiences might now wield on England in France.
“I’m not trying to be anything I’m not. Like Steve has said, we’re trying to be the best version of ourselves. Obviously there is learning, people learn all the time. It’s not a matter of sitting down and thinking right what went the last World Cup.
“Of course there is reflection but hopefully a lot of that reflection would have gone into the last four years, not just popping up and now ready to go when the next one comes around. I want to be myself, I want to enjoy it, I want is to be the best version of us.”
