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Steve Borthwick’s damning verdict on Eddie Jones’ England – here are the stats that prove him right

Steve Borthwick's damning verdict on Eddie Jones' England: Not good at anything - David Rogers/Getty Images
Steve Borthwick's damning verdict on Eddie Jones' England: Not good at anything - David Rogers/Getty Images

England head coach Steve Borthwick has delivered a damning indictment of the squad he inherited from Eddie Jones, claiming his data demonstrates they “weren’t good at anything”.

After suffering a 29-23 Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland in his first game in charge, Borthwick said it will take time to address underlying issues following Jones' sacking in December.

England, who have lost four of their last six matches at Twickenham, will drop behind Scotland to sixth in World Rugby’s latest rankings, and Borthwick said: “We know we’ve got a lot of work to do, I’ve been frank from day one in saying there’s a lot of work to do. When I looked at the team in the autumn, when I measured the team and got all the data, we weren’t good at anything. It was as frank as that.”

Borthwick worked as an assistant coach under Jones with both Japan and England when they reached the World Cup final and were ranked as the No 1 side in the world. Yet after Borthwick departed to join Leicester following the 2020 Six Nations title triumph, England’s decline has been precipitous.

They have won just four Six Nations matches in three years, with two of those coming against Italy. Under Jones, England were in the bottom three of tier-one countries for tries scored, defenders beaten, lineout steals and tackle success.

Borthwick highlighted the scrum - where England were ranked 11th in the world last year with an 85 per cent success rate - and the breakdown as key areas where they have been left behind by other nations.

“There’s multiple areas that we have tried to change,” Borthwick said. “I think you saw some improvement in the scrum [on Saturday] which I was pleased about because it has been ranked as the worst scrum in tier one rugby. I think we saw some improvements in the attack and speed of ball and we tried to improve the breakdown where I think England were ranked the ninth quickest, so one of the slowest in tier one. I think we saw some improvement in that regard.

“I’ve asked [the players] to do some things differently and they’ve committed wholeheartedly to that over the last 11 days. We saw improvement in a lot of areas. Some areas didn’t go so well and we need to make sure we get those addressed. Some take longer than others. We are trying to rebuild the set piece here. That takes time.”

The decline of the English set piece has been acutely felt by the squad with hooker Jamie George insisting it is up to the players to bring a fear factor back to the scrum and maul.

“That's very tough and that has to change,” George said. “We're all very, very ambitious people. We want to take England rugby back to the top and we're aware it hasn't been good enough and especially in the autumn, it wasn't. Eddie took the brunt of it in terms of losing his job. But at the same time, we were the people on the field. So we have to take accountability for it, too.”

England's Jamie George in action against Scotland - Steve Borthwick's damning verdict on Eddie Jones' England: Not good at anything - Andrew Couldridge/Reuters
England's Jamie George in action against Scotland - Steve Borthwick's damning verdict on Eddie Jones' England: Not good at anything - Andrew Couldridge/Reuters

Borthwick was encouraged by England’s response to going behind in the first half to Huw Jones’ well-worked try and Duhan van der Merwe’s wonder score, with Max Malins crossing twice. Ellis Genge’s try gave England a 20-12 advantage but Ben White and Van der Merwe took advantage of some suspect defending to ensure Scotland won back-to-back wins at Twickenham for the first time. Nevertheless, Borthwick believes that England have taken a step in the right direction.

“One thing I have got to do here is get the players to believe in themselves and get the players to bring their strengths to the pitch,” Borthwick said. “Get them to play to the best of themselves, which I don’t think we have seen them do for a while. I think you saw an improvement in that regard today.

“I’d seen a habit with the team of conceding points early and not being able to respond to it. We conceded points today and the biggest thing I was looking at was the response. I thought the response was magnificent.”

Fly half Marcus Smith is among those who seemingly felt liberated by the change of backroom staff with his club coach Nick Evans on secondment from Harlequins to England.

“Being able to work with Snap [Evans] at this level is brilliant,” Smith said. “I felt myself out there. I got my hands on the ball but it just wasn’t enough. I’ll go back to the drawing board and work on it.

“We've got weapons. It's my job to try and find the best way to shoot our weapons and I'm still learning. I'll keep working on that and one day we'll get it. I think we're trying to shock ourselves as to how fast we can play, how much pressure we can put on the opposition and on ourselves to play at this speed. It's going to take time. I thought it was a much better performance than we showed in the autumn.”

Borthwick claims he was given hospital pass... the stats prove him right

Like Lord Voldemort, Eddie Jones has quickly assumed the role of he who must not be named around Twickenham.

Jones has been whitewashed from the board of media coverage inside the Twickenham press room, but an even more pointed critique of his legacy came from his successor Steve Borthwick during his post-match analysis of the 29-23 defeat to Scotland.

Not once was Jones namechecked by Borthwick but when he stated that England “weren’t good at anything” last year there is no second guessing the inference that he received a hospital pass. Even the fabled new coach bounce will only take England so far when they are working from such a low base.

The stats provided by Opta bear out Borthwick’s thesis. England were near the bottom of the pile for nearly every metric among Tier One countries in 2022, perhaps most painfully in scrum (11th) and tackle (10th) success. Behind every great England side have been a ferocious set piece and defence but somewhere along the line this got forgotten in Jones obsession with jam tomorrow.

Hooker Jamie George grimaced when mention of England’s scrum being ranked bottom among tier-one nations was put to him. “That's tough, that's tough, very, very tough and that has to change,” George said. “We're all very, very ambitious people. We want to take England rugby back to the top and we're aware that it hasn't been good enough and especially in the autumn, it wasn't.”

Of course, Borthwick was always going to draw a line in the sand with the past regime. His low Cumbrain accent was broadcast on the PA system around Twickenham before the game in a clear attempt to announce the start of a new era after the Dark Lord.

Steve Borthwick during England's warm-up - Steve Borthwick's damning verdict on Eddie Jones' England: Not good at anything - David Rogers/Getty Images
Steve Borthwick during England's warm-up - Steve Borthwick's damning verdict on Eddie Jones' England: Not good at anything - David Rogers/Getty Images

Yet it is still striking that Borthwick was prepared to criticise the legacy bequeathed to him by his predecessor. No coach is more closely associated with Borthwick’s career than Jones, whom employed him as an assistant coach with Japan and then England. Whenever Jones needed a backer in the court of public opinion then Borthwick was always willing to mount an often lonely case for the defence.

But now that bond appears to be fraying with Borthwick also suggesting that the players lacked self-belief and confidence under Jones. “One thing I have got to do here is get the players to believe in themselves and get the players to bring their strengths to the pitch,” Borthwick said. “Get them to play to the best of themselves, which I don’t think we have seen them do for a while. I think you saw an improvement in that regard today.

“I’d seen a habit with the team of conceding points early and not being able to respond to it. We conceded points today and the biggest thing I was looking at was the response. I thought the response was magnificent.”

That response was led by Max Malins who scored a pair of first-half tries which showcased the quick ruck speed that attack coach Nick Evans had prioritised. Fly half Marcus Smith spoke of playing at a “tempo that’s a shock to us and therefore a shock to defend” and the speed of England’s play was the most striking difference in the performances from the autumn.

Smith also suggested that he felt liberated by the change of backroom staff with his club coach Evans on secondment from Harlequins to England. “Being able to work with Snap (Evans) at this level is brilliant,” Smith said. “I felt myself out there. I got my hands on the ball but it just wasn’t enough. I’ll go back to the drawing board and work on it. We've got weapons. It's my job to try and find the best way to shoot our weapons and I'm still learning. I thought it was a much better performance than we showed in the autumn.”

That pace was not always matched by accuracy. Scotland, led by two stunning scores by Duhan van der Merwe, were far more clinical with their chances in sealing back-to-back victories at Twickenham for the first time.

Of greater concern for Borthwick and new defence coach Kevin Sinfield was the number of missed tackles - 25 in all. Several of those came on Van der Merwe but both his tries came as a result of a poor kick chase. “Inexcusable” according to George.

There will be no excuses, however, when Italy come to Twickenham on Sunday with their tails up after pushing France all the way in Rome.