For a man whose grasp of detail has staggered many a colleague in his playing and coaching careers, Steve Borthwick can also display a mastery of imprecision and obfuscation. One might have thought that the England head coach might have used his first opportunity to speak to the gathered media since being given strong backing by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) following the review of England’s worst-ever Six Nations to go on the offensive; to lay out how, and why, he had been charged to take the side forward into this summer’s Nations Championship and beyond to the 2027 World Cup.
Instead, to a series of wide-ranging questions, came a run of half-answers. Now, if it could be understood that the cautious Borthwick not wishing to reveal the details of the review that has, again, been guarded like state secrets by his union, there was plenty otherwise upon which one might have hoped to have been more brightly illuminated. Take, for example, the matter of captain Maro Itoje, who could be rested for some, all, or none of the summer tour after a gruelling year in so many ways. What decision had Borthwick reached? “It is an ongoing conversation,” he replied. If Itoje does not travel, would you look to a new skipper or a different leadership team? “We can have that conversation when I finalise the squad, rather than hypothetically.”
