Steve Borthwick approaches milestone as England head coach

Some people will question how has he survived this long, but the fact of the matter is that Steve Borthwick will become only fourth England head coach to get to 50 Tests in charge when his team play Japan in the fifth round of the Nations Championship at Allianz Park on Saturday.

Recently, in response to accusations in a newspaper article that he had created a toxic environment, Borthwick revealed that some former England head coaches had sent him a private message of support.

Only Sir Clive Woodward and Eddie Jones (84 apiece) and Stuart Lancaster (52) have led England in more Tests, and you’d assume it was at least one of those three, or Geoff Cooke, whose record of 49 Tests he’ll overtake on Saturday, who told him, ‘been there, got the t-shirt’.

Borthwick was appointed as Eddie Jones’ successor on 19 December, 2022, nine months out from Rugby World Cup 2023, having worked as Jones’ number two previously, with England and Japan.

At the time, England were ranked fifth in the world, as they are now, but their present rankings score of 86.99 is 3.33 points higher. Something to cling to, perhaps, when people question whether England have made any progress under him.

Borthwick’s reign began with a 29-23 home defeat to Scotland at the start of the 2023 Six Nations, with Max Malins scoring the first points and tries under the ex-England lock and captain.

Ten of the 23 players who featured that day – Ellis Genge, Jamie George, captain Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum, Ben Curry and Ben Earl in the forwards and Jack van Poortvliet, Marcus Smith, Freddie Steward and Joe Marchant in the backs – are in Borthwick’s current squad preparing for the visit of Japan.

Borthwick only had to wait for his second match to chalk up the first of his 29 wins in charge, a 31-14 victory at home to Italy, before England followed it up with a 20-10 win on the road in Cardiff.

England were quickly brought back down to earth after suffering a record 53-10 humiliation at home to France, which was followed by a 29-16 defeat to Ireland in Dublin and a fourth-place finish in the Championship.

To the surprise of many, England finished third at the 2023 World Cup, only losing to the eventual champions South Africa by a point in the semi-finals.

Borthwick’s stock had undoubtedly risen but the style of play under him meant he would be given little leeway if results went wrong.

England moved up a place to third in the 2024 Six Nations but a 3-0 series defeat to New Zealand that summer showed how much ground England had to make up on the top teams before they could be considered one themselves.

By the end of the year, there was more disquiet as England blew a chance to beat Australia, losing a Twickenham thriller 42-37, and were then a distinct second-best to the Springboks.

England kicked off the 2025 Six Nations with a defeat to Ireland but a run of four straight wins, two of them by a point, left them just one point behind champions France in the final standings.

Wins over Argentina, twice, and USA kept the chariot rolling forward into November, where a clean sweep was achieved against Australia, Fiji, the All Blacks and Argentina.

When Wales were brushed aside, 48-7, on a memorable debut for Henry Pollock, England had reeled off 12 wins on the bounce – the third longest winning streak in the men’s team history.

The euphoria of that run, though, was quickly extinguished when a 30-21 Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland was followed by a record 42-21 home loss to Ireland and then came the nadir of Borthwick’s time in charge, a first-ever defeat to Italy.

England salvaged some pride in going down 48-46 to France in their best display of attacking rugby under Borthwick but there was no escaping the fact that England had suffered their worst Six Nations in history.

The message from the RFU after an internal review was to keep clam and carry on, with Borthwick being awarded a contract through to the end of the 2028 Six Nations.

And since then, England have won three of their first four games in the inaugural Nations Championship.

Borthwick has a 59.2% win success rate from his 49 tests as head coach, the lowest of those with as many or more appearances, with England scoring 1,445 points and 183 tries and conceding 1,078 points and 133 tries during his tenure.

Woodward, Jones and Cooke all have 70%+ winning percentages, while Lancaster, even with a disastrous home World Cup in 2015, won 63.5% of his 52 Tests.