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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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Rugby evolves every WC it is different in style of play. Look at SA known for being a heavy hit team but they have upped that with fast very skillful backs. Ireland under Schmidt didn't evolve after 4 great years and were rubbish come the WC. Herein lies the problem I believe with Eng. I see no difference between the style of play over the last maybe 8 years. The current squad is stale without flare or has a single player capable of letting loose. The only player with any possible invention M Smith is shackled in a system and a group of players devoid of heads up rugby. No one is challenging them, pushing them to improve to learn new skills to have ideas. Eng are currently a half decent club side that's it. How do you fix it? I am no coach but someone is needed in there to kick every single one involved firmly up the arse! Someone not afraid to tell the truth, not afraid of the 'up their own' media, someone who can unlock these players without scaring them into being one dimensional robots.
Is it really the coach? He is not on the pitch these are supposed to be professional players who should actually have a clue how to play a game of Rugby, they look like a team of school boys on detention being made to play as a punishment, I don't know if I read this wrong, did anyone see Genge give Lawes that look right after the anthem, if I did read it right then this is not a team that gel well together
England need to suck it up and write off this world cup. If as I and many others suspect England fail to get out of the pool stage then RFU may be hoping Borthwick falls on his sword saving them heaps of cash. If not then sack him straight away, no "enquiry" as to what has gone wrong, and bring in Lancaster or controversially Woodward as Technical Director and let him appoint the Coach
Left field choice... Steve Hansen
Chuck Norris falls asleep mid kick..when he hears Steve Borthwick talk.
It's too late now. Changing the head coach won't make any difference. England are way off it and it can't be fixed in 7 weeks by anyone.
Take the next two months to find a new head coach and a top class coaching team.
England will just have to suck this one up and use it to evaluate the entire professional game.
I'd bring all the clubs in and implement an overall plan to use home based players only and not have the clubs paying out unsustainable amounts of money to other countries has-beens and wannabes
Sir Steve Hansen's over there get him to run his eye over the team & have beer 🍺 with Borthwick.
Fire Borthwick and his assistant coaches! DO it NOW! Send the players to France and let them figure it out themselves. I bet they can do it and They'll play MUCH BETTER! Hell, we fans might even ENJOY watching them!
This isnt a one coach outfit. And Bortwick never was the messiah.
When Borthwick was brought in they didnt have any time to get a good coaching team together. It was a club coaching outfit moved to international with weeks to a 6 nations. What did people think was going to happen?
They then lost one of their best coaches in Nick Evans.
What is another club coaching setup with days till a world cup going to do.
And I would also like to know who in their right mind would want it?
I blame Sweeny.
As a Scot, I never thought that I would feel sorry for England. The sad truth is that Northern Hemisphere rugby is up sh1t creek without a strong England. As it stands, I'd back my local pub team against them. Looking at 3rd or even 4th in their group. Not enough to sack Borthwick, but Sweeney must go as well. He is solely responsible for a disastrous appointment.
I thought Borthwick was the emergency replacement.