Steve Borthwick is not a coach who makes statements or grand gestures for the sake of it. He is always someone who leads with his actions rather than his words. But his team selection against France gives off a clear message. It is an acknowledgment that the game we have seen England developing in this Six Nations is not enough to win a World Cup.
It is not enough, either, to beat the teams ranked second and first in the world. A solid set piece, a solid defence and kicking gameplan is all well and good. But that does not cut it against the best in the world, and that is what England face over the next two weeks. And while Borthwick is not one to play to the crowds, he also has the courage of his convictions – he has not shied away from big calls because of fear over how they will be perceived.
The missing element for England is the attack. It has been for years. France have quality in abundance, Ireland are averaging more than four tries a match in this Six Nations, and we know how ruthless and efficient they can be. England need to find that gear in attack. They showed glimpses of it against Wales with some well- taken tries, but Marcus Smith can now implement the vision of what England’s attack wants to be because he’s such a threat in that regard.
A word of caution, though, for anyone expecting Smith to perform exactly as he did for Harlequins against Exeter at Twickenham last weekend. Firstly, Exeter were poor, whereas France are the defending Six Nations champions, as well as the second-best team in the world. Secondly, it’s set to hammer down with rain and that is inevitably going to impact this match.
That said, the hope is that we see some of the variety and skill that Smith can bring. It boils down to philosophy, and even in poor conditions that will shine through. I really want Smith’s involvement to be about freeing up this team. I played with Nick Evans, England’s attack coach, at Harlequins, and his mantra was “if it’s on, it’s on”. He was adamant that we should play to space, with ball in hand, as the first option. If it isn’t on, then by all means do something else, but you can apply pressure by using the ball. We’re not talking about Barbarians rugby, we’re talking about what Ireland do.
They apply the maximum amount of pressure with ball in hand. They are exceptionally good at it. I was speaking to Johnny Sexton recently and he was explaining how a big thing for Ireland is to be unpredictable. I go back to 2019, when Ireland were flying, but England went to Dublin and turned them over.
England had clearly done their analysis that if they kicked left then Ireland would box-kick out of play through Conor Murray. So lo and behold, England worked all week on their launch-plays and they put it into practice early in the match with the overthrown lineout to Manu Tuilagi, scored the first try a couple of phases later and didn’t look back.
These days Ireland no longer have that predictability. They seek to take that analytical edge away from teams. Their opponents have to prepare for every scenario and that creates pressure. That is the level England have to aspire to get to, and if the vision to achieve that is to play a more attacking brand of rugby then I’m all for it. It wasn’t long ago that they kicked and clapped their way to the Autumn Nations Cup, and it did not get a lot better in the following years under Eddie Jones, so a philosophical change is welcome.
It is, however, important to temper expectations. I was speaking to an international coach recently who was explaining how last year he had sought to make changes to how his team played. He said it took six months to get to a place that he was happy with. England have had two weeks since winning in Wales, so let’s not kid ourselves everything is going to be different against France on Saturday.
The players will not be thinking beyond France just yet – Borthwick may be, but he will not allow the focus of his squad to be anywhere other than on Saturday’s match. He has repeatedly said each week that he has picked a team with only the opponents in mind. That is consistent with how he operated at Leicester. I was sceptical at first, but speak to Leicester players and that is genuinely how he sells the week’s programme to the team.
There does, however, come a point where it pays to know what your first-choice XV is, regardless of the opposition. There are some positions where it is important to have consistency of selection, particularly among your leaders – and the fly-half falls into that category. Equally, England need to be able to play multiple ways. They have shown in their matches so far – and in particular against Italy and Wales – that they can be effective playing one way. On Saturday, we’re going to get a glimpse of what else they can do.
