On the 11th day of Steve Borthwick’s first coaching camp, England lost the opening match of a much-heralded new era.
On the 14th day as a new unit, England pushed another glut of coaching changes out of the Twickenham door.
On the 19th day, England must host a resurgent Italy in west London.
Everything is in a state of flux, from the RFU executives’ futures, via the coaching staff all the way to the Test line-up. England might just be enduring the most wide-ranging systemic change in the professional era, and its truncated nature can only prove a Six Nations hindrance.
Professional rugby players crave routine and structure, two bedrocks that new boss Borthwick is swimming against the tide to provide for his squad. This is bound to impact performances and results.
Former Test captain Borthwick insists his side is a week-to-week team, and they can ill-afford to be anything else. But while “all we’re focused on is this week” might as well be carved in blood into page one of the annals of sporting cliche, rejecting everything else in favour of tunnel vision remains a particularly challenging discipline.
Ireland, the world’s No1 side, boast a head coach who has been in the setup for seven years and top dog for three, but even Andy Farrell’s men would be forgiven for allowing minds to wander to the big picture on occasion.
So what chance those players within an environment boasting not just a boss only 53 days into his role — but moreover two influential coaches who will depart no sooner than the Six Nations is at an end.
Richard Cockerill will leave to join Montpellier, with a new scrum coach still being sought. Nick Evans will return to Harlequins at the end of his loan, with Leicester’s Richard Wigglesworth coming on board to pilot England’s attack.
The Tigers’ performance director Aled Walters will help get the Welford Road band back together as well, linking again with old Leicester chiefs Borthwick and Sinfield.
No sooner has Evans arrived than the talented, attack-minded Kiwi coach will be straight back out of Twickenham’s revolving door. A prevailing wisdom suggested England could have put the squeeze on Harlequins to turn Evans’s loan into a permanent switch in the summer.
Borthwick has his man in Wigglesworth and this merits respect, but England’s ability to thrive in this competition is without doubt compromised by the pace and scale of change required by Eddie Jones’s December sacking.
Borthwick deserves time and backing, but only positive results will generate leeway.
The new coaching regime is beyond reproach here, clearly, and Borthwick and company know how to build a noise-cancelling buffer around their players.
So England ought to beat Italy, but then, England should have beaten Scotland. And, above all, England should never be in such a muddle as to change their head coach less than a year out from a World Cup.
Borthwick and his staff deserve time and backing, but the reality is that only positive results will generate that leeway.
All this creates a curious situation where England’s attack displayed more fluidity, flair and function than at any point since the 2019 World Cup — and all from the offensive director who will soon give up the gig.
Sinfield’s impact as Borthwick’s emotional totem will be vast and compelling in time, but across the course of 11 days his system initiations came up short. England leaked four tries with missed tackles and defensive doglegs aplenty in the 29-23 Scotland loss. And yet, Borthwick’s men could still encourage and excite.
Such contradiction permeates the entire England setup. What a difference a win could, and should, make this weekend. Italy’s vast improvement removes all sense of presumption, and England will be in a contest. The Azzurri will squeeze at the scrum, battle at the breakdown and whittle away out wide.
Toulouse flier Ange Capuozzo is a star for a generation, London Irish’s Luca Morisi can pilot operations in midfield and Exiles team-mate Danilo Fischetti cements a revamped scrum.
Italy ran France all the way in 29-24 defeat in Rome on Sunday, to confirm steady improvements. But still, no amount of English flux should derail the total demand for a home win.
England must sharpen both kick and chase, plug holes in defending opponents’ unstructured phase play and be far meaner around the ruck fringes off the ball.
The digressions, deviations and, dare it be said, derelictions, that brought England here will all still float on the Twickenham ether on Sunday. The distractions are manifold, the excuses non-existent.
