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Borthwick explains Tuilagi recall, ignores Farrell for Smith query

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Steve Borthwick has described Manu Tuilagi as a fantastic player to come into this week’s England team to face Ireland, but he refused to specifically address why he has decided to bench Marcus Smith and reinstate skipper Owen Farrell as the starting England No10.

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The rookie head coach has been picking up the pieces following last weekend’s record 53-10 home defeat to France, but preparations for England’s final match in the 2023 Guinness Six Nations haven’t gone smoothly.

Having lost first-choice lock Ollie Chessum to a training ground injury on Tuesday, Borthwick’s England encountered another midweek hiccup when their flight from London to Dublin on Thursday was delayed and his planned 6:15pm media briefing at their Stillorgan hotel was held back for 56 minutes.

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Borthwick had publicly confirmed his starting England XV while on route to the Irish capital, picking Tuilagi, Henry Arundell, Farrell and David Ribbans in place of the injured Ollie Lawrence, the excluded Max Malins, the benched Smith and the unavailable Chessum – and when his briefing did eventually get going, he was soon asked about the recall of Tuilagi, whose record versus Ireland is six wins and zero defeats, and Farrell.

“Clearly, Ollie Lawrence had an injury late in the game last week so was unavailable for selection this week, and Manu, having served his suspension, was then available for selection and was able to come into that role,” he explained.

“I would have loved Ollie to be available but he wasn’t. He has played really well playing in his first substantial Six Nations. What a fantastic player we have in Manu to come and join the team and step straight in. He has been training with us consistently, so he is eager for this opportunity… We are very privileged to have a player of Manu’s ability.

“Regarding the change at 10, as always I pick a team that I think is the right team for the game we are going to play, the plan we wish to try and bring into the game against a specific opposition.”

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Asked how Smith was coping with his latest ejection from the starting England XV after his recall to start against the French didn’t work out and resulted in him dropping back into the replacements, Borthwick avoided the question.

“Everybody around the team, players, coaches, everyone in the management team found last week’s result and performance painful,” he deflected. “It hurts. Every one of us has worked this week together to get an improved performance on Saturday.”

Borthwick also later refused to give a response to a query about whether Farrell had missed training during the week due to injury, plainly insisting the skipper was 100 per cent fit.

The coach had hoped pre-championship that his first campaign at the helm would result in a title showdown in Dublin with Ireland. However, having lost two of their four games, England are instead playing for a minor placing and the coach suggested fallout from last weekend’s record loss to France left no hiding place.

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“We would all love to be eagerly anticipating a game in which England would compete with Ireland for the championship on the final day,” he said. “Unfortunately, that has not proven to be the case at this stage of our development.

“The performance last week was not good enough and there have been a number of forthright conversations in the review of that game. We are now looking forward to testing our capabilities against the No1 side in the world in what promises to be a really exciting game on Saturday.

“The performance needs to substantially improve from where it was last week. We know we are playing against the best side in the world, so we are looking to test ourselves in what is going to be a fantastic atmosphere.

“We discussed the manner in which the contact area last week was dominated by France both in attack and defence, which makes it very hard to impose our plan. Ireland are clearly a well-organised, drilled side.

“They have been working together for a number of seasons now, so we know we are going to have to be very good in all aspects of the game to be able to compete and get ourselves in a position to win the Test match.”

As for no one giving England any hope of achieving an upset result against title favourites Ireland, the England coach reckoned: “We are excited by this game. We believe in what we are trying to do. We understand we have a lot of work to do. We knew that going into last week’s game.

“I was very upfront pre- and post-game about the gap. Our job this week is to keep trying to accelerate our development. We have a lot of catching up to do and we are excited about this game. We know they [Ireland] are a very good side, but we have got a lot of very good players in our team as well.”

Could England really fix things in a week? “You have to identify what the priorities are and when you have a defeat and a performance at the level that was last week, you have got to work to ensure that you are focusing on the main things to improve.  

“I look at the steps in development we have tried to make through this championship, playing against No2 team in the world last week and I have been very upront about the nature of that game. Now we focus on playing against the best side in the world and we will come out of this with a clear understanding of where we are at and we need to be doing.”

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

36 Go to comments
A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

36 Go to comments
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