Former World Cup winner Will Greenwood says he expects England to stick with head coach Steve Borthwick despite their shock Six Nations campaign.
After a big win over Wales in the opening game, extending England’s winning streak to 12 games, Borthwick’s side collapsed, losing their remaining four games.
The team were criticized for not being clinical or calm as they kicked too much and put themselves under pressure, ultimately conceding 55 penalties, nine yellow cards and one red card.
England bounced back to face eventual champions France in Paris on Saturday night, showing intent and ambition with the ball in hand and outscoring their rivals 7-6 in tries despite a last-minute defeat.
It was not enough to prevent a fourth successive defeat and Wales still face fundamental questions about their surprising slump in form following the win.
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Borthwick and Maro Itoje talk about their aspirations for the 2027 World Cup after draws with Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe
Despite an eventful campaign, Greenwood expects Borthwick to take charge of this summer’s Nations Cup competition and then lead England to the World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia from October 1 to November 13, 2027.
He told Sky Sports: “I’m pretty confident that the RFU will make an intelligent enough decision for him to lead England to the 2027 World Cup.”
“Borthwick has beaten all the top teams, but the only worry for me is not being able to play back-to-back games. Going head to head and winning consistently against the best teams is a question mark over his head.”
“A fitting finale to the greatest Six Nations ever”
Will Greenwood told Sky Sports: “It was the best Six Nations finale ever, when you go to the final kick! Overall I think the Six Nations is always a great tournament, but there’s always that moment where you think, ‘Which was the best championship?'”
“It was definitely the best ending to the Championship, but I think from an England perspective it was probably one of the worst ever.
“Did England take a huge step backwards? No, all they did was stand still and other countries made progress, including Wales. That’s the most disappointing thing!”
“England…what happened? Why can they perform like they did on the final Saturday and the opening Saturday against Wales, but then look mediocre at best in the remaining three games?”
England fell victim to indiscipline during the Six Nations
On England’s discipline, Greenwood said: “We gave away as many yellow cards as Italy did in 2002, when they had just arrived. You have a team under pressure, a team that is shaken up, mentally and physically exhausted, and that was the situation in Italy in the early 2000s. To go back there is actually pretty bad.”
“It was like watching Kevin Keegan play against France! We score one, you score one. Nobody cares about defending. And in the end, the win was won by two penalties awarded in stoppage time, but Thomas Ramos had to choose where he wanted to kick from and that suited his perspective.”
“That’s an area we need to look at. The players aren’t trying to do anything stupid. If the team puts pressure on them and they can’t deal with it defensively, they give away penalties.
“When teams play too fast, they can’t stay connected as a group, so we try our best to fix that, but instead we make it completely terrible.”
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Check out the highlights of the 2027 Rugby World Cup draw. England and Wales were drawn together in Pool F, with Ireland and Scotland in the same group aiming for a third consecutive World Cup appearance.
england six nations results
England 48-7 Wales Scotland 31-20 England England 21-42 Ireland Italy 23-18 England France 48-46 England
What questions does the RFU review leave?
Sky Sports’ James Cole tells us what steps to expect from the RFU review following England’s poor performance in the Six Nations.
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Sky Sports’ James Cole talks about what steps he expects to take in the RFU review following England’s poor performance in the Six Nations
The RFU will hold a post-tournament review to consider how the team can go from winning 12 games on the bounce to losing four.
This post-tournament review is standard practice, but has taken on added importance due to England’s poor campaign.
It will be led by RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney, but will involve people from inside and outside the organization.
They will ask questions of the players and the coaching staff, but I think the important question they will want answered is, “Are the players still buying into the philosophy of Borthwick and the coaching staff?” Do they still support their players? ”
England captain Maro Itoje consoles Henry Pollock after defeat to France
After the defeat in France, we saw the players come out and clearly support Steve Borthwick.
If it really is an atmosphere behind closed doors, the RFU will need to look at the balance of coaching, the culture within the group and the approach to training to figure out what is going on.
Or is it simply a matter of players taking responsibility? Steve Borthwick will have a lot of credit in the bank. He has been evolving this team since before the Six Nations started. They won 11 games on the bounce.
They were one of the favorites to win the title. How it unravels, and how it unravels so quickly, is the concern. The response from the RFU will be the measured one.
That 12-game winning streak included victories over Australia, New Zealand and France, and showed on Saturday night that England can compete with the best teams in the world.
The question is: What needs to change or improve to stabilize that level of performance in the lead-up to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia?
England Nations Championship fixtures
Round 1: 4 July – South Africa vs England Round 2: 11 July – Fiji vs England Round 3: 18 July – Argentina vs England Round 4: 8 November – England vs Australia Round 5: 14 November – England vs Japan Round 6: 21 November – England vs New Zealand
