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No-shows from England and France in our Six Nations team of the week
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England double down on unpopular tactic but are 'under no illusions'
By PA
England are to double down on their unpopular kicking game for Saturday’s clash with France, despite the recent slump that has forced the Rugby Football Union to give Steve Borthwick a vote of confidence.
Borthwick’s men take on the Guinness Six Nations title favourites in Paris, aiming to halt a slide of three successive defeats that includes a historic first loss to Italy.
Among the criticisms made of England is their conservative tactics, with statistics showing they have kicked the ball more times and for more metres than any other team in the tournament in 2026.
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However, the gameplan underpinning their recent 12-Test winning run that ended against Scotland in round two has not delivered the same success in the Championship amid an overall misfire in attack.
World Cup winner Matt Dawson wrote in his BBC Sport column on Sunday that they are “never in a million years going to Paris and beating France by deploying the same kick-heavy strategy. If they do, that is a red flag against England’s coaching ticket.”
Ben Spencer, who was reinstated at scrum-half for the 23-18 collapse in Rome on Saturday, insists too much kicking is not the source of the team’s problems.
“I don’t think the gameplan needs to change at the moment,” Spencer said. “We all believe in the plan.
“Last year we had great results playing not too dissimilar to the way we do now. We haven’t gone too far away from what we did when we had 12 wins on the spin.
“In terms of the kicking game there are loads of ways you can go about it, but if you look at the two defeats we had previous to Italy, both Ireland and Scotland kicked more than us.
“Whether it’s kick to compete, kick to score, kick to turn teams, we got a lot back in the air against Italy, our wingers were brilliant at that and that got us in an for the game.
“For 60-65 minutes the game was there to be won. A couple of things in the last 20 minutes let us down, but it wasn’t our kicking game that cost us.
“We’re under no illusions as a group. Our attack needs to improve and it’s probably not just our attack that needs to improve either. It’s loads of aspects of our game.”
Borthwick has been backed to continue in his post by RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney, although the statement released on Sunday indicated a timeline of this year’s Nations Championship for the head coach to revive the nation’s fortunes.
A voice of support for the embattled Borthwick has come from his predecessor as England boss Eddie Jones.
“Is there a better coach available than Steve Borthwick?” Jones told Planet Rugby. “No, there isn’t.
“Steve is a quite brilliant tactical coach. He is learning the emotional strategy of Test coaching on the job. And that is a really big task.”
Flanker Tom Curry has been ruled out against France because of the calf injury sustained during the warm-up at the Stadio Olimpico.
