LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'This is the most challenging ten days of Borthwick’s career.'

All roads lead to Rome, or so they say. Well for Steve Borthwick and his English gladiators, the amphitheatre in the heart of the Italian capital could be where they emerge victorious, or where they get the thumbs down from the paying, and baying crowd. The pressure is on to avoid a first ever defeat to the Azzurri, so here are five sub-plots to consider ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster…

1 – Steve Borthwick under pressure and in panic mode?

It may be a stretch to say that England fans have ever clutched Steve Borthwick to their bosom, not that the old second-row grunter would want to inhabit such intimate places. Yet there have been relationship vibes going on during the last 12 months as England appeared to be shaping a meaningful identity. And now? All bets are off. We thought we knew Borthwick – solid, reliable, assured and trusting, not a knee-jerk man, prone to rashness and off-the-cuff moments. Yet this selection smacks of all those elements. Borthwick has always made great play of avoiding doom loop syndrome, of chasing the ace when the cards didn’t  fall right. But it is hard to fathom quite what state of mind he is in as he heads to Rome. Nine changes of personnel is the most ever made by England in a Six Nations fixture. An entire back line has been sent to the shredders, some of it injury-induced but most by preference. Each and every one of those changes can make sense on an individual basis. Fin Smith was the fly-half in possession until the Lions tour, Seb Atkinson was the go-to man in Argentina. Cadan Murley has gas, Tom Roebuck ruled the skies in November while Elliot Daly was one of the stand-out turns on the Lions tour until injury.

Yet all the changes at once? It’s a gamble. It’s as stark as that. No matter what Borthwick himself says, it’s impossible to see it any other way. It’s as out-of-character as was his pre-tournament statement that he wanted his team to have something on the line for the final weekend in Paris. Instead, it could be his job that is on the line. Or there will be a clamour for it as there most surely would be in football. Practical consideration such as pay-off costs and few viable alternatives would make it tricky no matter what you feel, even if the worst were to come to pass with successive defeats leaving England with their worst ever return in a Six Nations championship, one win and shattered credibility. Let’s be clear. Fans have every right to raise a stink. That’s the way elite sport works. If Borthwick were a CEO of a grievously under-performing  multi-million pound business, his board would be asking the same questions. These are unsettled times. And this is the most challenging ten days of Borthwick’s career.

2 – Mood Music

England have so often been accused of being cocksure and arrogant Anglos that they might as well assume the mantle and head into the Stadio Olimpico as gladiators of old, swinging and slashing, imbued with a deep belief that this is their stage and theirs alone. No more cowed apologies, no more fear and hesitation, no more hang-dog England, more whimper than snarl. Where are they to get this new-found (some may say ill-founded) strut and swagger when their last two outings against Scotland and Ireland have been so limp and fretful, beaten before the clock had ticked towards half-time? Have they really become a bad team overnight? Well, they certainly appeared to be living down to that damning epithet. But within that self-same lot there is a feint beat still of the beast that roared across much of 2025. Those wins may have had an element of good fortune but none of them were flukes or undeserved. England made their own luck, through their graft and togetherness. They were clever and hard-nosed in equal measure in their autumnal clean sweep, their first in many years. As spring looms, a rebirth of those values is not only desirable, it is imperative.

3 – Time for Maro to perform like Maro

Clive Woodward once had the luxury of summoning four England captains from the bench for the 2002 game against Italy in Rome, a considered selection by the head coach, not that the likes of Lawrence Dallaglio (along with Martin Johnson, Matt Dawson and Jason Leoanrd) saw it in such a generous light. They were different times with England developing their strength-in-depth and Italy, at their evocative former home at the Stadio Flaminio, scrapping and scuffling to justify their presence in the Six Nations. England need quality of leadership right now, be it a Dallaglio or Johnson figure. Itoje’s style is different. And that’s fine. But he knows that he needs to deliver something special as a player if he is to rouse those around him.

The 31 year-old may well have moved on from the shouty, arm-waving persona of his early years but a bit of that would not go amiss on Saturday nor would a long-levered Itoje reaching through lineout mauls or open-field breakdowns to disrupt or snaffle all-important ball. England miss that Itoje. There is a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. But that’s the whole point of a captain – leading from the front through stirring words or beetle-browed frowns or warrior-like actions. No side has won a World Cup without a player of substance leading the way down the tunnel. The roll-call of honour tells its own tale – David Kirk, Nick Farr-Jones, Francois Pienaar, John Eales, Martin Johnson, John Smit, Richie McCaw, Siya Kolisi. It’s time for Itoje to show that he might one day belong in such company.

4 – The balance of the back-row.

England supposedly have a stash of high-calibre back-row forwards to choose from. And yet the old Eric Morecambe line keeps floating around in the brain, the peerless one telling conductor, Andre Previn, in a BBC Christmas Special  that: ‘ Yes, I am playing all the right notes… but not necessarily in the right order.’  Whatever combo England have tried in this championship, the feeling remains that it lacks balance. No matter how much the game has changed in the modern era, old truisms still apply. You need a banger on the blindside, a flyer on the openside and a bit of both in between them. There is a better shape to England this week but you still come back to the fundamental issue  – England are missing a driving presence at No 8, be it a Dean Richards of old, a Billy Vunipola of recent vintage, or a Kieran Read or Sergio Parisse or, pointedly, Tom Willis. For me, Earl is a flanker. The Saracen posts fabulous figures but he does not smash through the gain line or churn forward as Billy V used to do with would-be tacklers trying to drag him down. England have to get that formula right. Until they do, the problem will remain.

5 – Can England lose in Rome?

Of course they can. Italy is not the Italy of 2002 when Woodward rested his front-line men. In the last round the 33-8 defeat to France did not tell anything like the whole story. Italy are fierce and productive up-front, bright as well as forthright behind with the best centre pairing of the championship in Brex and Menoncello. By comparison, England’s attack has been fractured and their defence fallible. All those changes will not improve fluency or collective resistance. But – and it is a leap of faith – let’s flip the question.

Can England win in Rome? Yes, they can. And the reason is simple – desperation. They are seemingly dead. They have to roll back the stone and rise from their tomb-like state. If they don’t, their 2027 World Cup project is dead and buried.