Steve Borthwick has made an impassioned plea for the Twickenham boo boys to get behind his new England side in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash against Scotland.
England have lost their last two meetings with Scotland and were booed off at full-time of their last match at Twickenham in November, but as Borthwick launches his tenure as head coach he has urged supporters to wipe the slate clean.
England have not beaten Scotland at Twickenham since 2017 and have prevailed in only one of the ensuing five encounters. History further shows the importance of Saturday’s fixture with Stuart Lancaster, in 2012, and Eddie Jones, seven years ago, both beginning their reign with a narrow victory over Scotland.
Given their recent record, Borthwick is expecting a “confident” Scotland to arrive at Twickenham and acknowledged that there will be mistakes from his side, which features eight changes to the one which started the dismal defeat by South Africa in November. Borthwick has called on the Twickenham faithful to forgive England’s autumn woes.
“I ask them to be behind this team,” said Borthwick. “This is the first step in this next chapter of the England team. This is a group of players that care so much about England. I know I do, so I ask [supporters] to get behind this team and lift this team, as they always do.
“There will be mistakes but I want the players fighting, getting to the next battle, bringing all the strengths they have into the England shirt on that pitch. And I think the players will show that fight and that determination. We want to make the supporters proud and want the players to be proud of the team. Our players are determined to play with the fight, the commitment, that our fans expect and deserve.
“The message I give to them will be a pretty simple one in the sense that, in every single study I ever read, the impact of home support is worth more than any one player.”
The forwards coach, Richard Cockerill, said England will be far from the finished article given the limited preparation time they have had since Borthwick took the reins. Whereas Jones became preoccupied with the World Cup later this year, Cockerill is adamant that reclaiming the Calcutta Cup is the focus.
“We’re here to win, first and foremost,” said Cockerill. “It’s the most important thing and what we get judged on. We want to see signs of what we’ve been working on and how we build our game.
“I’ll take the win because that’s what we’re here for. Playing for England and coaching England is all about winning. But I have a feeling it won’t be 3-0. We want to be a positive team who play a positive brand of rugby that wins the game.”
