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'Best in the world': The Steve Borthwick verdict on Farrell's Ireland
England boss Steve Borthwick has labelled Andy Farrell’s Ireland as the best team in the world despite them not winning the recent Rugby World Cup.
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The Irish were eliminated in the quarter-finals in France, losing out to the All Blacks in a tournament where Borthwick’s English emerged from the weaker side of the draw to win the bronze medal final.
Three rounds into the 2024 Guinness Six Nations, Farrell’s side are leading the way at the top and on course to claim back-to-back Grand Slam titles for the first time.
In contrast, Borthwick’s England are licking their wounds following their surrender away to Scotland, a 21-30 loss putting an end to what had been their best start to the championship since 2019 thanks to wins over Italy and Wales.
The Irish are now Twickenham-bound on Saturday as red-hot favourites to take another successful step towards their second successive clean sweep.
Borthwick has complimented them on their form, labelling them as the world’s best but added that England are still determined to pull off an upset result.
“About Ireland, right now we would all agree they are the best team in the world,” he said on Thursday afternoon after confirming a starting XV that has three changes from Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
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Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Alex Mitchell and George Martin have all been named to start on this occasion at the expense of the benched Elliot Daly and Danny Care, and the excluded Ethan Roots.
“Might not have won the World Cup but right now, the way they have been playing, the way they have been playing through the first period of this championship, they are the best team in the world.
“Their attack is probably the best in the world. Now it’s going against a defence that wants to put people under a lot of pressure, so we are going to be really tested there and I am really looking forward to seeing our defence under this test.
“What we have been able to do is force teams to change the way they have been playing a little bit, we have forced teams to make a number of errors and then we started to have the ability to capitalise off the back of those turnovers that are created.
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“Now quite clearly if you are playing against Ireland, if they are allowed to get into their rhythm then they are a very strong side. So we need to ensure they don’t get into that rhythm and then from there, maximise the opportunities and how quickly we take them.”
Defending his 19-game record in charge of England since the start of the 2023 Six Nations, Borthwick added: “I have said over the last period about the team evolving. I said from having the foundations in place we need to keep evolving.
Andy Farrell explains his recall of Hugo Keenan, the non-selection of Garry Ringrose, and the "freak" training ground injury sustained by the absent James Ryan, with Liam Heagney ?? #ENGvIRE #GuinnessM6N #IrelandRugby #rugby pic.twitter.com/R0SBBPNOtx
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 7, 2024
“Part of that is evolving tactically, evolving technically, evolving physically, so evolving the squad composition and makeup of the players. You can see that is changing over this period.
“But let’s be clear here, while we are respectful of those factors, we go into every game wanting to win. Our aim is to get the result that we want.”
Skipper Jamie George backed up his coach at the media briefing, claiming: “I entirely agree. It could be very easy for an excuse to be made that we are in transition or whatever you might want to call it.
“We’re here to win this, we’re here to take on the best team in the world at Twickenham and there are going to be no excuses going into this game and we are very excited about that.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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