Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once remarked “sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence”, the mind’s natural defence against stupidity. Only half an hour into the match between England and Ireland last Saturday, home supporters were cheering uproariously when George Ford finally managed to find touch from a penalty kick.
Ten minutes before the end of the game, they were streaming down the aisles in their hundreds, looking get an early jump on the evening traffic down the Chertsey Road. It was a very English way to vent frustration. A chortle of sarcasm, then vote with your feet. No point in lodging an official complaint. Nudge nudge, wink wink, take the hint Steve Borthwick.
Sporting memories have grown increasingly short with the passage of time. It is only three months and four games ago Ford was the cool coastguard, racing to the rescue with two dropped goals when England threatened a first-half subsidence against the All Blacks. On Saturday afternoon at Allianz Stadium, he was less of a lifesaver and more the man in need of a lifebelt after those two missed touches. Not waving, but drowning.
Ford is a cap centurion who has proudly represented the red rose for over a decade. As his skipper Maro Itoje observed after the game: “George is a fantastic player. He’s a player I deeply admire. He’s the player who’s delivered for England time and time and time again, and he’s had a huge amount of success in his career, and he will continue to have a huge amount of success in his career with this team and all of the teams he represents.”
Itoje was right absolutely right in the first part of his comment but veered off the road somewhat in the second. One disaster may not define a glittering playing career, but it does signpost the direction this England team needs to take next.
There can be no more doubt now Borthwick has reached his very own ‘Rassie’ moment. Wind the clock back for a moment, all the way to September 2025. South Africa had lost two of their first three matches at the Rugby Championship, and their hopes of retaining the title they had won the year before looked slim indeed. The Springboks were marooned in hostile territory in the middle of New Zealand, and their most ancient rivals were scenting blood in the water. It was not a pretty picture.
Springbok supremo Rassie Erasmus responded by making one of the most significant and gutsy calls of his coaching career. He ripped up the script which had won consecutive World Cups and dropped Handre Pollard and Willie le Roux from the decision-making axis of the team. He dumped 24 combined years of experience, and nearly 200 caps of tactical ‘brains trust’, in the bin.
The keys to the kingdom were entrusted to a new generation, to three twenty-somethings in Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Manie Libbok and Damian Willemse. South Africa won the second game against the All Blacks by 43-10, and they have not looked back since.
Now the big Cumbrian has to show the same cojones as Erasmus. Over the first two rounds of the Six Nations, England kicked for more metres than other side – a massive 2,025m. Individually, Ford topped the charts with 34 kicks for 1261m. On Saturday, Borthwick decided an England backline run by two current or ex-Leicester men [Ford and full-back Freddie Steward] could run and pass rather better than they could kick the pill. The outcome was the men in white only put boot to ball on 18 occasions, for 373m. On any given Sunday, Ford would not get out of bed for numbers like those.
The state of confusion was underlined when Steward returned from the sin bin late on in the first half, only to be replaced by Marcus Smith three minutes later. Ford had already missed his two penalty kicks to touch, and muffed two other clear scoring opportunities by the time Smith arrived on the field. A like-for-like substitution, with one 10 replacing another, looked much the more natural course.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
The first clip is an example of a poorly-weighted pass, but in the second Ford does the unforgivable, eating the space which properly belongs to Henry Arundell outside him. If you really want Arundell to show his finishing wares, and confirm the brilliant comets of attacking promise he trailed as a teenager, give him the ball early, give it to him in space and support the man.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has already heeded the warning lights which flashed bright red in the first-round loss to France, now it is Borthwick’s turn to do the same. Where Ireland had no kick or turnover returns by hand worthy of the name for the first 50 minutes against France, they established five major platforms from similar situations against England in the opening period, converting all into line-breaks, and three of those into tries. It was like watching a rerun of the same game two years ago, but with colours reversed.
Ireland are hinting the rate of a rebuild with new blood can progress as, or more quickly than the speed at which their senior group of players are deteriorating. They caused the upset I was predicting in at least one of their key away matches, at either Stade de France or Twickenham. They fell in Paris but rose again in England.
Big Ulsterman Stuart McCloskey did a more than passable impersonation of Andre ‘the Giant’ Esterhuizen in West London, and he started by proving he could bully Ford down the defensive 10 channel.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
After a lineout turnover by Joe McCarthy, McCloskey tows Ford along effortlessly in his wake for five metres or so before turning to unload the ball to Jamison Gibson-Park straight up the middle.
He was the dominant carrying presence on either side, with five defenders beaten, two line-break assists and one clean bust asterisking his contribution on attack. A mind-bending 55 of his 56 carrying metres came either in, or after contact had been made with an England defender.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
In both instances the man victimised is Bath’s Ollie Lawrence, who looked short of a gallop in the key battle between the two power centres [one wearing 12 and the other donning 13 on his back] on the day.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
On this occasion Jamie Osborne dominates Ford in the aerial battle, Caelan Doris makes the initial bust and McCloskey runs straight through both English centres close to the England goal-line. Lawrence got no change out of the Bangor man when he had the ball either.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) February 22, 2026
The Queen’s University alumnus was enjoying himself so much he even had the energy to run down Smith in the 73rd minute after spotting him a five-metre start. It was McCloskey’s best performance in a green jersey, and Farrell’s fists pumped and his face hardened in evident satisfaction as the Harlequins magician was rag-dolled into touch. That action told the tale of the game as eloquently as any words.
Farrell had his Damascene moment in the traumatic loss in France. He realised Ireland were not playing any rugby in the scenarios that really mattered, and a tentative rebuild began one week later against Italy. It reached a sensational climax in the 42-21 rout of England on their own patch. ‘Traumatic’ can be turned to ‘transformational’ in the right pair of hands.
That coaching parcel has now been passed on to his immediate opponent on Saturday. Will Borthwick know what to do with it? His comments after the match suggested not, but a two-week break between the third and fourth rounds will offer ample time for reconsideration.
“I think George is doing so much good for England and has done for a long period of time and particularly the last spell,” Borthwick said. “I think the way [he] played in the autumn was outstanding, and I think two weeks ago he played really well here against Wales.
“I know you want to talk about individuals, but the team, it’s all of us today. Like last week, we didn’t find a way to get the result we wanted, but that’s all of our responsibility.
“I think Fin Smith is an excellent player, as is Marcus Smith, and we have some very good players and options in that position and in the 15 position also.”
A Six Nations title, and Borthwick’s avowed pre-tournament aim that “on 14 March in Paris, we want to be in a position where we can achieve what we’re all aiming to achieve” may now be out of reach, but the game against France still looms as a decisive moment in the development of Borthwick’s England. The light of the Saints is still shining, the moment of revelation is at hand but there may be more pricks than kicks before it is received, and fully understood. Nudge nudge, wink wink, Steve.
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SB looks like he tried to adjust the gameplan away from kick heavy but forgot to adjust the selections to match. He will be a fool to make that mistake twice.
And as for 5x7, someone needs to tell them that plan doesn’t equate to their tackle stats! Quoted elsewhere that four of the England pack had tackle success in the 70’s, and even when they did manage to hit the target, their bd was abysmal.
As for Ireland, made to look better than they would be against equivalent opposition as England effectively sank themselves without trace. No one, and I mean no one saw that England fcuk up coming, not even mystic Nick!
For God’s sake Nick. It’s not always about the Springboks.
Come on man!
It’s an excellent point of comparison HH. After all, that’s the team Eng really want to beat!
Now for the interesting part, ENG used to kick their way upfield and were pretty efficient at scoring in the red zone.
We are doing a lot more multi phase and have made an incredible number of handling errors in the last 2 games, with 56 handling errors, with 23 of them being in the red zone 23, whilst also dropping off in defence.
I can’t quite tell if they are working too hard to get there are are tired after more multi phases, or simply lack the composure once they know they have to score.
When you look at red zone efficiency, WAL are bottom with 1.4 but ENG are next with 1.7 - that’s a long way away from where we were playing for the last 12 months, which is why Ford finds himself under pressure and the clip where he takes Arundell’s space is a perfect example of how he struggles with ball in hand attack.
There’s actually a few things to unpick in there but ENG are creating more chances than ever, they simply aren’t taking them, so there is a mixture of both good & bad that needs a better balance.
In attack, it looks like Lee Blackett is changing tactics and player selection has not yet matched those changes.
As you say, ENG kicked 42 times vs WAL, 26 times vs SCO and 18 times vs IRE (of which Ford only kicked 8 times).
When you look at the stats, ENG are still attacking for about 20 mins, are doing more passes, more carries and more post contact metres than we have in the past, so we are definitely playing a higher ball in hand style than we have in the past.
However, what you see if that George Ford carries the ball to the line, doesn’t draws his man only and ships the ball to Dingwall, who has 1m of space before the defensive line hits him and frequently failed to move the ball in so little space, hence why ENG rarely get the ball past 13 in the way they are playing.
Fin Smith moves the ball immediately and gives Dingwall at least 5m of space and time, which is why they frequently beat the rushing D to the outside channel.
We are actually playing attack tactics that suit Fin Smith, yet we are playing with a kicking 10 & 15 and selection has failed to move with the revised tactics.
Look at the one Eng BD turnover P.
Pollock steals it and Ford has a long 30m run which brings all the Ire defenders together in the same space and crowds Arundell’s for same.
Now why would do what you’re doing - 24 fewer kicks v Ire compared to v Wales - with a running attack being run by three blokes from Welford Road - JVP, Ford and Steward?
What you need to make it work is fewer Tigers and more Saints!
One thing that cannot be forgotten is the fact that we’re in a post-Lions Tour season.
Between 1998 and 2022, 5 out of 7 6Nations were won by France, with 4 Grand Slams: 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2022 (2013 and 2017 being during France’s hopeless period).
Many English and Irish players were involved in too many games.
With the adrenaline drop after a Lions Tour, it can also be harder mentally after Winter break.
So many people take it as an excuse, but we’re all sitting tidy in our chairs/couches and trying to grasp truths out of something we don’t have control over.
Although we may think they’re super-human, it’s still just human beings with human bodies and human minds, and circumstances matter.
That’s why the RWC is usually the only moment where conclusions about a state of reality can be drawn in the most equal way.
There is clearly something in the post Lions tour burnout but both teams suffered and Andy Farrell clearly got his team emotionally prepared for this game better than Borthwick. A big part of the difference was simply desire & workrate between the sides.
You can’t deny that Sheehan, McCarthy, Beirne, Doris & JG-P were the stars of the Irish team, who were all on the Lions tour. They stepped up and delivered, whereas Genge, LCD, Itoje, Chessum, Curry, Mitchell all looked pretty flat.
It does make me question if the players know we are playing a game plan that doesn’t suit selection. To come out and pre-engage your first scrum, mix up the line out calls on your first line out and just not hold the ball and find your rhythm is a preparation thing.
The game was pretty much over before ENG even got out of the blocks.
The single most important factor, and the main reason France should not be getting too carried away right now Soli.
Italy held them scoreless in that middle hour of the game and that will have given future opponents how to manage Les Bleus.
As Tommy Freeman said recently, it’s often not so much the physical fatigue as the mental aspect. The body can recover but the mind is heartily sick of being asked for so many peformance peaks in such a short time!
Let’s start in defence.
ENG averaged a very impressive 190 tackles at 90% tackle completion in the big Autumn games. For the last 2 games, we have been down at 130 tackles, with 79% completion.
Given there are 35 mins ball in play, with about 20 mins in attack, this says ENG are doing 60 less tackles over the 15 mins in D . . . . Which is 4 tackles per minuite less in defence than we were doing in the Autumn. That’s massive!!
It’s also why ENG went from hitting 190 tackles at 90T t/c conceding 20 points a game and have gone to 130 tackles at circa 79% t/c conceding +30.
That’s probably the 1st area that needs to change, then we can talk about attack.
It’s the background to those missed tackles that makes for the most interesting reading P.
Ire won seven BD turnovers to Eng’s one, and their halfbacks kicked twice as much as Eng’s [23 kicks to 12].
So as you can read and see from the piece, Ire were getting a lot of their own high ball back and they were winning plenty of turnover ball too - and that’s the best ball from which to attack.
JGP and Crowley were far more attuned to using it than JVP and Ford. Alex Mitchell was another huge loss. No Northampton influence at all after that, all Leicester.
So, after the shock of how poor ENG played at Murrayfield, we were potentially worse this weekend against a better IRE team, who absolutely destroyed ENG in all areas except the scrum.
There is no hiding from it, IRE out fought them, out worked them and out played them and potentially every player across the 23 beat their opponents. That’s simply not acceptable at this level but confirms something has changed during the 6N’s with ENG, so let’s start pulling it apart.
Morning NB - what a weekend to unpick.
Gregor Townsend so nearly became the saviour of Welsh Rugby but is nice to see signs of life rebuilding in Cardiff. It will take time but they should be on the mend.
IRE absolutely destroyed ENG, we can get into that shortly but Andy Farrell confirmed what a savvy coach he is and how much that team have missed him last season. They started slowly but have progressively improved and were absolutely immense in defence at the weekend.
. . . . And ITA . . . . This is without doubt the best version of ITA we have seen and if they played that ENG team playing the current tactics this weekend, they would have beat us, so will depend how brave Borthwick is over the next 2 weeks (and I agree with your comments).
Yes Eng were worse this weekend than last P.
They need to get back to a place where they can kick the ball and also run it effectively. Atm what we have is if [a] doesn’t work then [b] cannot save it.
With Fin at 10 you can keep most of the kicking game while radically improving the running game. That also means forefronting the likes of Furbank and Daly, and poss taking a punt on a Caluori or a Hendy on the wing opposite Freeman.
Hi Nick. No matter who the coach is or what the tactics are, 30-odd missed tackles indicates that determination and spirit is lacking. No one who is selected for England is really that bad a tackler which means that it’s not so much the tactics or the personnel but the team morale. Everyone from the hooker to the full back were missing tackles. They don’t seem to be playing for each other as a team.
Englands defence was the worst part of their game. Leakey. Flat footed. No energy.
Attacks can wane. Set pieces can take a few backward steps week-on-week. Individual players can have bad games.
But that kind of poor collective defense says a lot about the mindset of the English Team at the moment.
For the coaching panel it will more a matter of where and how those misses are happening G… Fin Smith will help on D too as the Ford channel is vulnerable and he has that readymade understanding with Dingwall at club level.
I honestly don’t not believe they expect Ireland to attack them ball in hand as they did either. The Eng machine is broken but not completely busted, and Italy in two weeks will be the right test at the right time for them.
McCloskey showed England what a test 12 looks like. Dingwall was nowhere to be seen.
I sympathise with Ford regarding the clip where he didn't give it to Arundell down the right wing. He was trying to get the winger to commit and turn in before he shipped to Arundell but he probably overestimated his own attacking ability and was cut down by JGP without threatening to break the line so was forced to pass without drawing the winger and Arundell was easily shut down with no space. It looks bad but I'm not sure it was the wrong idea, just he couldn't execute it.
It is 100% time to give Fin Smith the keys, more importantly get a set cut for Blackett and make sure to get Wigglesworth’s back off him since he's clearly still using them!
Careful drawing comparisons between Rassie and Borthwick in your titles Nick, you'll have a frothing horde of Saffas here in no time… or maybe that's the whole idea! 😉
I don’t think you’re comparing like with like tho Tom.
As in the piece it’s matter of comparing the two power centres on either side, and that would be Lawrence whether he’s got 12 or 13 on his back.
Henry Slade, who used to be Lawrence’s regular centre partner was a distributing centre and Dingwall is closer to him in character.
Ford just pulled the Irish scramble D together by running at the space unfortunately. Give to Henry for goodness sakes, he has only one man to beat! It’s what he’s there for 😁
As a little more substantiation to your assertion, since France Sexton and even McCloskey had been hinting at something ‘special’ brewing. Using the Farrell backline attack after turnover/regather was spectacularly successful. McCloskey’s success in forcing Ford down his lane was symptomised somewhat with Ford being England’s biggest carrier.
Ireland were happy top have Ford run, knowing he was no danger running and less danger when Ireland smashed him to the bottom of a ruck.
The Ballacoune try against Italy was very encouraging. Ireland almost had three line breaks in that move but for timing and the signs were there that something was going to click. It must be said the u20 performance on Friday evening would have been brought to the lads attention and I was feeling something was in the air then.
Borthwick must get the Saints fly half in and let the attack coach do his thing. Borthwick Ball in its purest will still be useful when England are dominating e.g. to suck the life out of and frustrate to death the likes of Argentina in a RWC semi final, while conserving for a final.
That’s Ireland now, wait ‘til the Connacht boys are back!
The signs of more positive intent were there in the Italy game EE, and it’s something Ireland were not doing either in November or against France as I showed in a previous article. With Crowley at 10 they could do it because McMillan will always back his men to counter with ball in hand. So it worked.
Ford’s running metres are meaningless as you can see from the second clip, he runs about 30 metres but blows the opportunity!
I don’t believe SB has fully accepted that Eng tactical approach has already been caught up. Until he does, he won’t pick Fin at 10.
The fact that this conversation about 10s is even happening proves the depth and ability of this England team
Is this the sarcasm Nick was talking about?
Care to unpack that BP? Are you saying it’s a positive convo?