Stuart Lancaster is convinced Steve Borthwick has time to turn England into World Cup contenders.
Seven years after vacating the post Borthwick now holds, Lancaster says his fellow Cumbrian has the skills to make a success of the job.
“Steve will make England hard to beat, I'm absolutely certain of that,” said Leinster’s senior coach. “I don’t think it’s as worrying as people make out that he is taking it on at this point.
“They have the talent, the World Cup camp, the preparation and the draw is favourable to a certain extent. So there is no reason England can’t go well.”
Borthwick has under seven weeks to put his mark on England before they kick off the Six Nations at home to Scotland.
Lancaster was met with a similar timeframe when he replaced Martin Johnson in the hot seat following the 2011 World Cup - and came within one win of capturing the trophy.
“Steve is very good on set piece, defensively they will be very well organised and they will be very good at playing out of their half,” he said.
“If you get all those bits and pieces right at international level with the players England have, that will make them competitive no matter what."
Lancaster added: “I am delighted Steve has got the job because he is an English coach and he has come through the system, a bit like myself in that I got the interim job at a very similar time.
“It was December 2011 so it was a very short run into the Six Nations and we made wholesale changes to the squad and won four games out of five.
“So it is more than achievable to do well with the squad he has.”
Lancaster believes Borthwick has the added advantage of having worked with England for five years under Jones.
“He will really benefit from that time,” he said. “I wasn’t involved with the previous coach, I was the Saxons [second team] coach.
“Steve knows the environment, knows the players and knows English rugby and he has proven at Leicester Tigers that he can transform a team from near the bottom of the table into one that can win the title.
“His coaching team is strong, with Kev Sinfield a great addition. He has this run-in to the World Cup and the tournament itself and the four years after that. So it’s a five-year contract and I’m sure he’ll put his best foot forward.”
