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Bill Sweeney's 'underperformed massively' assessment of England
By Liam Heagney
RFU chief Bill Sweeney is optimistic that Wednesday’s launch of a new eight-year men’s professional game partnership will deliver better long-term results for Steve Borthwick’s England.
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The CEO, who gave his 100 per cent backing to the head coach following recent staff upheaval, didn’t pull his punches at the Allianz Stadium launch when delivering his verdict on England’s record since 2003, the year they won the Rugby World Cup and a Six Nations Grand Slam under Clive Woodward.
“From an outcomes point of view, sport is about results, about success,” he insisted. “We have underperformed massively since 2003. We have only won four Six Nations championships, one Grand Slam – 2011, 2016, 17 and 2020. You’d expect more from us and we definitely want to deliver more.
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“We believe we should always be in contention for Six Nations championships and Grand Slams. We believe we should always be in contention in the latter stages of knockouts of World Cups to go forward and win the World Cup.
“We do sincerely believe this gives us a mechanism and the collaboration with the RPA, the players, the PRL clubs and the RFU to enable us to actually do that. We are already seeing some very good outcomes.
“The U20s Junior World Cup win this year was 12 months ahead of time. We thought we would really be contention next year. As Conor (O’Shea, the RFU director of high performance) has said, we have got stronger U20s coming through and a stronger again U18s coming through.
“A lot of that has already been through improved relationships, how Conor and Phil (Winstanley of Premiership Rugby) and the clubs work together in terms of accessing those players and developing those players.
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“So we think this is an exciting time for the game. It’s a completely different look and feel and structure to govern the professional game going forward, massively different from the previous professional game agreement.
“And frankly, after 18 months of really friendly negotiations, we are just desperate to get away from the deal fatigue and actually get on with implementation and execution.”
That execution will see Borthwick being able to select up to 25 players in an enhanced elite player squad and have the final say on all their sports science and medical matters.
Having followed up an encouraging March in the Six Nations with two plucky tour efforts in New Zealand, the Borthwick regime was rocked by the loss of S&C boss Aled Walters to Andy Farrell’s Ireland while defence coach Felix Jones has also tendered his resignation.
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Sweeney was adamant that these staff issues weren’t a repeat of the personnel merry-go-round that unfolded under Eddie Jones, Borthwick’s predecessor as England boss. Instead, he gave Borthwick his full backing despite the sudden upheaval.
“We are obviously very disappointed,” he said. “You would have seen in New Zealand a lot of good momentum in terms of the way England have been playing with Steve as head coach. We have got a really nice blend of experience and young players coming in now.
“There is real excitement around that. The way we played at the backend of the Six Nations and then in New Zealand was really encouraging and then we have got the autumn coming up, so for that to happen was massively disappointing. It came out of the blue. Totally unexpected.
“What I can say, though, is Steve has absolute 100 per cent support from us, from me personally and from the RFU, and I can also say categorically says he has 100 per cent support from the players in that squad.
“He talked to the players in the squad. They are quite keen to deliver a message which is we have got a really enjoyable environment in that camp, we have got a nice blend of experience and youth, we have got fun, have activities going on.
“They seem to genuinely enjoy being in camp and they want to make sure they have got coaches coming in who are passionate about our journey and the vision we have got to buy into this new structure. To answer your question, disappointing. Things happen. We just need to focus now on moving on.”
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