Steve Borthwick risking player revolt with frustration ‘growing’ inside England camp – report

Steve-Borthwick-England-coach-v-Argentina-RWC-2023-Alamy

England players are reportedly unhappy with the nature of training under Steve Borthwick, according to a report in the British media.

The Red Rose are looking to revolutionise their game during the early stages of this Rugby World Cup cycle, with both attack and defence being changed.

Felix Jones has come in from South Africa as their defensive guru and has sought to implement a Springboks-like system during the Six Nations.

How long it took South Africa

Ex-Boks head coach Jacques Nienaber has previously stated that it took the world champions 14 games to get it right, but Borthwick wants to accelerate that process.

According to the Telegraph, there is ‘growing frustration’ for some of the players, with the head coach focusing his attentions on the defence.

As a result, the attack has been negated, despite England’s intention to expand their game from the conservative style they employed at the Rugby World Cup.

The newspaper have reported that during one particular training session, a ‘prominent’ back only touched the ball once.

Borthwick’s side were criticised for their handling errors during their Calcutta Cup defeat after they made a series of errors during the 30-21 loss.

That led recently retired international Ben Youngs to state that the players were not getting enough catching and passing practice in training.

“We have wonderful, gifted players who are great at the line and executing,” Youngs said on the For The Love Of Rugby podcast. “They are brilliant. That makes me think that maybe during the week they are not getting enough reps.

“Maybe the attack isn’t the focus in the week as much as it should be because there is a new defensive system and maybe that is taking a huge amount of priority along with the foundations of a high kicking game.

“Although they are talking about growing this attack, I am not sure they are getting the reps and the amount of time spent on it to fine tune it. That’s what I am seeing.

“We look like a team that has only run the strike plays twice in the week and when trying to run it against an opposition trying to stop us, essentially we came unstuck.”

How the clubs do it

Premiership leaders Northampton Saints have the most potent attack in the domestic competition and, according to coach Sam Vesty, all players are expected to have 150 touches of the ball per session.

At Bath, backs are expected to pass the ball at least 100 times each, while that number is at 50 for the forwards.

Should that number be significantly less for the England players, it would put into context their attacking struggles against Scotland and may force Borthwick into a rethink.

The head coach could either give more time to the attack or change their game plan until the defence is sorted and briefly revert back to the style which almost gave them a shot at World Cup glory last year.