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Calls for emergency replacement for Borthwick following latest England flop
Irate England fans and pundits are calling for a change the top after head coach Steve Borthwick oversaw England’s latest calamitous flop, this time a first-ever loss to Fiji.
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The Flying Fijians played brilliantly and deserve huge credit for their historic 30-22 win, but the metaphorical crosshairs are once again pointed at Borthwick and his coaching ticket.
It’s England’s fifth loss in six games, with each performance seemingly worse than the last.
Former England flyhalf Andy Goode wrote on Twitter that: “So England Rugby are at our lowest ever ebb. (And we were bad when I played for England) It started with Eddie and has continued with his protege Borthwick. I reckon it cost about £1.5 million to sack Eddie & buy these coaches, Bill Sweeney made these decisions and had a pay rise.”
He also tweeted “#Borthwickout”, which has received over 700 likes to date, and is being picked up and tweeted by other users of the platform.
Well-known rugby journalist Neil Fissler suggested that England now need to hire someone to take over the reins immediately, writing on the social media platform that: “Steve Borthwick is totally out of his depth as England coach. Need to get rid of him now. Forget the cost get in Baxter permanently or Diamond for the World Cup… Anyone else thinking Borthwick looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights… Borthwick lacks of the charisma to turn this around. Unfortunately history could be remembering him as our worst ever national coach.”
Fans weren’t any kinder, with many demanding Borthwick be sacked immediately. “Is it possible to sack borthwick pre-world cup?” asked one fan, while another wrote: “sack Borthwick right now, might actually give us a chance of gett8ng [sic] out of the group at the WC. Possibly the worst appointment of coach in a long long time.”
Earlier in the week BBC rugby broadcaster Sonja McLaughlan pointed to some rather ugly England stats that suggest England are making anything but progress. “Borthwick talks of ‘progress’ England have lost 4 of last 5 tests. Tries scored 4 Tries against 20 Huge improvement needed and fast.”
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There were some defending Borthwick, with former Gallagher Premiership PR supremo Paul Morgan writing; “What is clear is if anyone can turn this around Borthwick can and the team that faces Argentina will be significantly different and better!”
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Comments on RugbyPass
I’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
37 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’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…
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