When Steve Borthwick declared this week that English rugby had “turned a corner” the ears pricked up. It was not on a par with Bill Sweeney’s outlandish claim during the World Cup, with Jersey Reds having just become the fourth club in 12 months to go to the wall, that “we are on the cusp of something spectacular” but it struck as an overly Red Rose-tinted assessment of the landscape nonetheless.
The suggestion was that, with his new captain Jamie George committing his future to Saracens, the exodus of England internationals to France is drying up. He went on to elaborate that, “we’ve all had a fair amount of time seeing the way English rugby has gone over a couple of years. We are seeing the attendances and atmospheres in grounds. We are seeing how competitive they are in Europe. You are seeing the nature of Premiership rugby, how many good teams there are now. There are maybe eight teams that can make the top four. That’s important because every game then matters. That’s what happens at Test level. You have to be at your best every game. I think that is important.”
