Why is Borthwick playing it safe for England’s historic Test match in Japan?
England and Japan did not feature on the same rugby fixture card until 1971, and at that stage it was an England XV.
In fact the two sides did not face one another until the 1987 Rugby World Cup, where England came out 60-7 winners; their first ever match at the quadrennial competition. And then, besides a couple of A fixtures, the two sides were separated until 2018 and have since played two further times.
But a new milestone will be reached on Saturday when England run out in a sticky Tokyo to take on Japan, for it will be the first ever match between the two sides to be held in the Land of the Rising Sun.
It is Steve Borthwick of England versus his old boss Eddie Jones, now back with Japan – the two were key in masterminding the country’s epic win over South Africa in the 2015 World Cup during Jones’s first stint as head coach of the Brave Blossoms – and it is Red Rose successor versus Red Rose predecessor.
It is also the first summer tour for Borthwick as coach of England – last year’s matches were hosted at Twickenham due to the Rugby World Cup – and it is a difficult trio of matches for the rookie international boss.
After Japan, which is forecast to be humid and hot, England will take on the All Blacks in New Zealand. They have not toured New Zealand since 2014 and you can count their eight wins against the mighty hosts on two hands.
It is probably why, then, Borthwick has named a steady and somewhat conservative team for the fixture against Japan.
There are no debutants in the starting XV – despite this being the summer tour furthest from a future Rugby World Cup and therefore ripe for experimentation – and there appears to be little deviation from the general structure of the team in the months since former captain Owen Farrell’s farewell at the Six Nations.
Many expected Fin Baxter, the young but seriously impressive prop, to be given a shot off the bench given the next two matches will be against the All Blacks. Alas, he was left out.
And there is a beefy theme flowing through the forwards, as per usual, with less emphasis on open-play selections.
The absence of Zach Mercer, twice player of the year in the French Top 14 but yet to truly break out in England, signified where Borthwick is going with this selection. More of the same.
And the excitement, in numbers 21 through 23 – scrum-half Harry Randall, fly-half Fin Smith and uncapped Tom Roebuck – is stranded on the bench.
England should continue their 100 per cent winning record against Japan this weekend. If they were not to do so then it would be a monumental upset for Borthwick akin to his humiliating loss to Fiji just before the 2023 World Cup.
But at a time when the All Blacks are looming there seems to be little adventure. The oddities of England continue, with Kevin Sinfield key to the coaching team this month even though he is soon to be dropped; the mind games that are bound to be played with Jones; and the fact that the game has not been picked up by a traditional broadcaster in the UK and instead being streamed on World Rugby’s RugbyPass TV platform. But the game plan and execution will likely be the same.
In 1987 the points difference between these two was 53, in 2018 it was 20. In the two fixtures since it has been 39 and 22. Japan will be looking to make that number more uncomfortable for England at home; after all, they beat Ireland in the World Cup in Japan in 2019.
England have probably done the right thing in treading carefully, but it feels as if – with summer tours soon to be out of the window due to the new global calendar – they’ve missed a chance to go full throttle into plans D, E and F for the future. And that takes the sting out of them slightly.