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'It's never been mentioned and it's never crossed my mind' - Borthwick not thinking about Lions
Steve Borthwick has not discussed the potential of touring South Africa with the British and Irish Lions with his new Leicester Tigers bosses. Borthwick has left Eddie Jones’ England set-up to join Leicester, and is already hard at work as head coach under rugby director Geordan Murphy.
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The 40-year-old former England captain acted as an assistant coach to Warren Gatland on the Lions’ drawn series with New Zealand in 2017.
But when asked if he had any designs on another Lions tour next summer, Borthwick insisted he has given the idea no thought.
Borthwick said: “It’s never been mentioned; never been mentioned and it’s never crossed my mind, to be honest.
“I’m not one to give statements without having put any thought behind them. So I’ve not thought about that, I’ve not put any thought to that at all.”
Borthwick meanwhile pledged Leicester will “adapt and overcome” after losing England centre Manu Tuilagi to Sale Sharks.
Lions star Tuilagi headed a cast list of six senior players to leave Leicester after rejecting 25 per cent wage cuts, due to the coronavirus crisis and salary cap reductions.
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Tuilagi has since signed for Sale until the end of the 2020-21 season, leaving the club he joined as a teenager for one of Leicester’s direct rivals.
Big-name signings like Fiji wing Nemani Nadolo are already on board as the Tigers look to evolve under new head coach Borthwick, with stars like Matias Moroni, Kobus Van Wyk and Kini Murimurivalu also recruited.
And Borthwick insisted the Tigers can cope with Tuilagi’s loss in pushing towards a new era.
“Circumstances do change, circumstances, things you’ve made plans for, do change,” said Borthwick.
“A friend in Fulham who runs a second-hand book shop rang and said, ‘I’ve got all these books on great Lions tours, they’re there for you to read’”
– @dallaglio8 reveals to @jimhamilton4 his homework prior to the trip of his life with @lionsofficial ????https://t.co/V0JLhjlFxF
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 4, 2020
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“No one could have predicted these last few months, you go back, even go back to when I was coaching England during the Six Nations, and no one could possibly anticipate at the start of the Six Nations that we wouldn’t be able to finish the tournament, with what’s happened.
“So I think with any situation you find yourself, you adapt, you find a way to adapt; find a way to adapt and overcome.
“We’ve made some signings, the players we have here are working exceptionally hard to improve themselves, to help improve this team and take this team forward. And that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Borthwick’s Leicester switch was confirmed in April, before he started work at Welford Road on July 1.
The former Saracens lock has already vowed to steer Leicester back to the top, with the Tigers currently languishing in 11th place in the suspended Premiership’s table.
‘It did turn sour’
Ed Griffiths’ behind the scenes insight into the Springboks 1995 #RWC win ??, the back story to the Mandela moment, confronting flag-waving fans, holding clothes hangers for luck & the lost opportunity of it all
– writes @heagneyl https://t.co/XpSHESE4cF
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 24, 2020
When quizzed on how quickly Leicester can once again be challenging for silverware though, Borthwick insisted he will not yet be setting any time limits on that rebuilding job.
“Right now we’re focusing on the here and now and what we can do in this situation,” said Borthwick.
“We’ve made a start on and we’re trying to put in place what we want to do. We know we’ve got some changes to the squad that have happened, and we’ve got some new additions that are going to be joining the squad in due course.
“And as we go we’ll be building this team going forward. In terms of looking ahead and making goals for that as we go, I’m not going to sit here and do that.
“What I’m going to do is talk about the way we’re going to train, the way we’re going to prepare ourselves. And if we continue to do that we’ll make progress as a team.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments