Steve Borthwick leads England into the Six Nations armed with wisdom from Gareth Southgate and Adam Peaty’s coach - and a plea to the fans.
The former Leicester Tigers boss has been handed the task of turning around a team booed off Twickenham on its last appearance in double quick time.
Eddie Jones paid the price for losing the supporters after a calendar year in which dismal England lost six times - seven if you include the defeat by the Barbarians.
Borthwick has made it almost his first task to reconnect with the fans and implore them to back the restoration project he has undertaken with assistants Kevin Sinfield and Nick Evans.
“Not one player can add more than the home crowd can,” he said, during a rare break from preparations for a huge Calcutta Cup clash.
“People talk about them being the 16th man but the crowd is worth more than one player, it is worth more than anything else, so I would ask the Twickenham crowd to roar this team on.”
There is no doubt the Barbour brigade had become disillusioned with Jones’ repeated assurances, after yet another defeat, that all would be well come the World Cup.
As a former player and captain at a time when England often struggled he is only too well aware of the difference cheers make to jeers inside Twickenham’s cavernous arena.
“I know we have got to deliver on the pitch and we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “As we grow as a team I am expecting us to, but one thing we ask is that the crowd are with us. I think they are going to be.”
Borthwick, 43, has held up his end of the deal by making himself as qualified as possible for arguably the biggest job in world rugby.
A 57-cap playing career left him feeling he had not maximised his potential and got the absolute best out of himself.
He has channelled that frustration into being the best coach he can possibly be; taking himself abroad to learn and work in Japan before returning to reach the 2019 World Cup final assisting Jones and then land the Premiership title with Leicester.
Along the way he enrolled in the UK Sport Elite Coach programme and it was on that his path crossed those of Southgate and Mel Marshall, coach to Olympic swimming great Peaty.
“It was one of the greatest experiences I have had,” he said. “Studying with some unbelievable coaches. Mel, Gareth, Paula Dunn (UK Athletics’ senior team leader).
“I was coming into the room and going ‘I know I am going to learn today, I am going to listen to every word Mel Marshall says because she is incredible’. Those experiences open your eyes.
“That was three years, a brilliant experience. Travelling to different workshops to listen to these coaches, how they deal with things. I couldn’t wait for those weekends and residentials.”
Borthwick hopes those experiences and all that learning have equipped him for the task ahead - a nine-month campaign in which Six Nations bragging rights and a World Cup are at stake.
He wants so much to deliver for the fans, being first and foremost an England supporter himself.
“I was that boy, sat so close to the TV watching the anthems before games in the Five Nations, as it was then, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up,” he said.
“That always sticks in my mind and now I have the great honour of coaching these guys as head coach. I can’t wait to get started.”
