England to hold talks with clubs over playing style as Steve Borthwick aims to sharpen attack

Sharpening England’s attack ahead of the autumn Test series will be the first priority when the new landmark professional game partnership between the Rugby Football Union and Premiership clubs begins next month, Telegraph Sport understands.

The deal, worth more than £264 million to England’s leading clubs over the next eight years, will see the introduction of ‘hybrid contracts’, first revealed by Telegraph Sport last October, with up to 25 enhanced elite player squad (EPS) contracts to be offered to players.

An official announcement is expected next month, with the fine details of the eight-year deal currently being reviewed by the clubs. No major issues are expected.

The deal stops short of giving Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, the same control of his leading players that is available to Ireland counterpart Andy Farrell under the IRFU’s central contract system.

But, for the first time, Borthwick will be able to establish long-term strength and conditioning and skill development programmes for the players in conjunction with their clubs. England will also have a say in medical decisions as part of a new integrated approach, even if it stops short of a ‘final’ say for Borthwick amid concerns from the clubs it could be used by future head coaches to manipulate game-time control of leading players.

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The players who were on the summer tour of Japan and New Zealand are only just returning to pre-season training this week. But it is understood plans have already been drawn up that will see for the first time England coaches meet with their club counterparts and the individual players in the next two or three weeks.

The objective is to give the players a clear plan, with the flexibility to review throughout the season if improvements need to be made.

It is understood the overriding priority will be for the players to focus on their skills aligned with the new emphasis on developing England’s attacking game that has been a work in progress since last season’s Six Nations.

England’s attack came under fire following their defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield in February, when establishing the side’s new blitz defence system had dominated training sessions, but has improved significantly since then.

England surprised New Zealand with their attacking game in the two narrow defeats in Dunedin and Eden Park and with the All Blacks returning to Twickenham for the opening game of the autumn on Nov 2, the goal is to add further layers to their strike moves and multi-phase play.

While this will no doubt hearten England supporters who had to endure an extremely limited game plan throughout last year, there is a sense of pragmatism about the strategy too.

England do not currently possess the heavyweight firepower capable of implementing their traditional forward-based game plan. The strength of the current squad is in the athleticism of their back five, including the selection of two open-side flankers in the back row, Ben Earl and Sam Underhill or Tom Curry.

One of the focuses through the start of the season is likely to be on improving the speed of ball at the breakdown to enhance the running threat posed by scrum-half Alex Mitchell.

For the first time in a number of years there is also genuine pace out wide, following breakthrough seasons for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme.

The decision to start Marcus Smith at fly-half and back him for a number of games was central to this more attack-minded philosophy, although England’s inability to control the final quarter of both defeats against the All Blacks underscored the loss of George Ford, who had to miss the tour because of an Achilles injury.

The loss of leading positions in successive matches was reflective of a lack of experience and cohesion, while England’s penalty count was also costly.

The three stages of England’s attack under Borthwick

Kick and clap

It was the defeat by Scotland at Twickenham in the opening round of the 2023 Six Nations, Steve Borthwick’s first game in charge, that would define England’s attacking strategy throughout last year. The new England head coach selected an attacking line-up to start his tenure, with two playmakers – Marcus Smith at 10, Owen Farrell at 12 – a livewire scrum-half in Jack van Poortvliet, and Alex Dombrandt at No 8.

But when England ran out of steam in the final quarter, Scotland were able to surge to a famous victory by keeping the ball in hand and running from deep, culminating in a brilliant try by Duhan van der Merwe. It proved to be a chastening experience for Borthwick. His conclusion was that the England players were not fit enough to play an all-court game for 80 minutes. With the clock ticking to the World Cup, the decision was taken to tighten up England’s gameplan and centred it around a contestable kicking strategy. It was a straightjacket that led to booing from some supporters, but ultimately proved effective.

England reached the World Cup semi-finals, an above-par finish, and only missed out on the final due to a last-minute penalty by eventual champions South Africa.

The Murrayfield factor

If Borthwick knew that England’s attacking game had to broaden in the post-World Cup rebuilding phase, the focus going into the start of this year’s Six Nations was instead their defence. With Felix Jones joining the coaching team from South Africa, he was given licence to establish a new-look blitz defence, similar to one that had proved so effective for the Springboks.

The time spent working on generating an aggressive line speed dominated pre-tournament training sessions and, as a consequence, the cohesion of England’s attacking play suffered. When Borthwick selected George Furbank at full-back for the trip to Murrayfield, it looked like a bold attacking call. Furbank was another playmaker who could attack space and give England’s attack another set of eyes. But in the chill rain of Edinburgh, it felt like England couldn’t catch a cold, never mind the ball. The handling errors in a fourth-successive Calcutta Cup defeat brought England’s attack into the crosshairs, with former players, such as Ben Youngs, questioning their training.

Behind the scenes, the decision was taken to prioritise attacking reps, now that the defensive foundation stones had been laid. Critically, Borthwick moved swiftly to reassure his players that their mistakes would not cost them their places. He was determined to replace the fear culture that had grown under his predecessor Eddie Jones and instead encourage his players to take risks in attack.

The next phase?

England’s attacking game improved significantly in the surprise victory over Ireland at Twickenham, and again in the narrow defeats by France and in the two Tests in New Zealand last month. Yet what was clear from the three defeats is that England currently do not have a front five with the heavyweight firepower to impose England’s traditional forward-based game on opponents.

In critical moments against the All Blacks, England resorted too often to chip-kicking possession away in attacking positions, based on the hope of getting it back in a better position or forcing a turnover. Instead, it was the All Blacks who counter-attacked.

With a mobile back five in the pack, genuine pace at full-back and wings and an attack-minded fly-half in Smith, the decision has been taken to focus the rest of the year on adding extra layers to a high-tempo attacking game, based on securing quicker ball to exploit the current strengths of the squad. The implementation of the new professional game partnership between the Rugby Football Union and the Premiership clubs, which offers Borthwick and his coaches the ability to draw up specific conditioning and skills programmes for the England players to work on in conjunction with their club coaches, should offer a new opportunity to fast-track this strategy ahead of the autumn Test matches in November.