Is Borthwick’s England tenure reaching a critical point?
When Max Jorgensen crossed the tryline for Australia on Saturday, it condemned Steve Borthwick’s England to a defeat in which they shipped over 40 points at home.
The 37-42 loss to the Wallabies is tied second for the most points the hosts have ever conceded at Allianz Stadium.
While it fell short of the 53 scored by France in the 2023 Six Nations, it matched a 6-42 rout by South Africa back in 2008.
And what do those three Tests have in common? Troublingly, the answer is Borthwick.
Borthwick’s uncomfortable association
The 45-year-old was in the coach’s seat for the losses at the weekend and against Les Bleus before last year’s World Cup, and he was in the starting XV against the Boks 16 years ago.
Even if you ignore how England imploded in the second quarter to scupper a 15-3 lead into a 20-18 half-time deficit, how half-back replacements again changed how the home team played, and the lack of impact from forward replacements, the wider off-field picture was bleak too.
When No9 and No10 replacements George Ford and Harry Randall were shown on the big screen the 80,000 fans inside Allianz Stadium erupted into a collective groan. A servant of the international English game for a decade and one of the zippiest scrum-halves in the Premiership almost booed at home? Genuinely concerning.
Fans who forked out upwards of £129 appear to have decided that enough is enough, and there was no shortage of people leaving as soon as Jorgensen scored the winner.
Ford’s arrival, unlike last weekend when he replaced Marcus Smith, forced the starting fly-half to full-back, where he was out of position for the winning try.
But it matters not because the result was the same as the loss against New Zealand. And Borthwick is still on to match an Eddie Jones’s record low of five wins from 12 games in a single year.
When that happened to the Australian, he was sacked after seven years in the job.
England seeking new manager?
And while the RFU is expected to back Borthwick, given his contract runs through until the 2027 Rugby World Cup, if he were to achieve the same feat as Jones it would come against the former England boss’ Japan – who England play in the last match of their autumn.
Jones’s sackable autumn saw England draw to New Zealand, beat Japan, lose to Argentina and crumble against the might of the Springboks.
Thus far in 2024 Borthwick’s England have lost to the All Blacks and Australia, could be routed by the Springboks and then head into their Japan Test 0-3.
With one of the world’s top defence coaches Felix Jones leaving his post after just seven months, reportedly for being “unhappy with the unstable working environment”, to be replaced by long-time Borthwick pal Joe El-Abd, and England continually making the same mistakes and coming up short, there does appear to be a growing feeling that the end is nigh – no matter what the governing body says.
Unforgivable
And this feeling was compounded, too, by captain Jamie George’s words, after the defeat, despite calling the defeat “unforgivable”.
“Sometimes in a Test match like that, you think the job is done. We took our foot off the gas,” the Saracens hooker said.
When was the job done? At 15-3 after 15 minutes or 37-35 with two minutes to go? The answer should be neither but England clearly didn’t see a comeback as possible at some point. Yet another tough lesson to learn.
England get no respite with a match against the world champions South Africa up next before a pantomime finale against Japan and Jones, who’d love nothing more than inflicting upon his successor a season to match the one that led to his downfall.
It’s an uncomfortable time to be in charge of the nation with an embarrassment of player depth and financial riches, that’s for sure. And it could get worse.