Wallaby shirt-wearing son reminded Borthwick of 'power rugby has'

Steve Borthwick has revealed how a welcome home last week from his Wallaby jersey-wearing son reminded the new England boss about the power he believes the sport of rugby has to inspire. The 43-year-old had finished up work at the Leicester training ground ahead of his final match in charge of the Tigers when he initially thought he was about to get a special hug from one of his two sons when he arrived in the door last week.

However, instead of embracing, his nine-year-old raced by his father and dived into the far corner of the living room to score a try, all the while wearing an Australia jersey given to him by his mother.

It was a humorous behind-the-scenes moment that Borthwick volunteered for public consumption following his unveiling as the new England boss on Monday on a five-year deal that will expire following the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

“I got home a couple of days ago, I stepped in the door,” said Borthwick at his first media briefing after the RFU confirmed him as the successor to Eddie Jones. “I have got two boys and the nine-year-old is Hunter and Hunter is running towards me.

“He is carrying this ball in his hand and I’m thinking to myself it is one of those moments where as a father you go he is going to give me this great hug. It’s a kind of heart-warming moment. He ran straight past me and dived on the floor on the far side of the living room and scored the winning try.

“He said: ‘That is the winning try, daddy, I just scored the winning try’. Brilliant. Brilliant. So one problem is that I missed out on my hug. The second problem was he was wearing a Wallaby shirt, his mother is to blame for that. His mum is to blame for that. But what it reminds me is the power that rugby has, this incredible sport that we love, it has such power.

“Now what we want to do is make sure that this team is one that uses that power to get kids to fall in love with this game, to get the supporters roaring and keep them roaring. Now we have got a lot of work to do. I’m under no illusions. Everyone can see that.

“We have got a lot of work to do and that is not going to happen overnight. But we have got a great group of players. We have got experienced players, we have got young players that are emerging that have got such incredible talent and that is really exciting.”

Earlier at his unveiling, Borthwick had spoken about how he was inspired as a young boy watching England play before growing up and winning 57 Test caps between 2001 and 2010. “To be appointed to this role fills me with incredible pride and I’m honoured to take on this job. I know that pride will count for nothing if we don’t deliver.

“I want to shape a team that wins, I was a little boy who fell in love with rugby watching the England team play. I want to shape a team that this nation gets behind, inspires our supporters and inspires lots of young boys and girls to fall in love with rugby as I did all those years ago.”