Steve Borthwick breaks silence on Felix Jones' England resignation

Steve Borthwick has denied that England have been disrupted by the upheaval to his coaching team ahead of a strenuous autumn that opens against New Zealand at Allianz Stadium on November 2. Felix Jones, who oversaw the defence, handed in his notice in August despite not having an alternative job lined up, while departed head of strength and conditioning Aled Walters has taken up a similar role with Ireland.

Both coaches were seen as important figures in England’s quest to win the 2027 Rugby World Cup and their exit forced Borthwick to scramble to find replacements. Joe El-Abd has taken over the defence while performing his director of rugby duties with Oyonnax until the end of the season and Dan Tobin is in charge of conditioning until Phil Morrow can be prised away from Saracens.

Jones is claimed to have made his decision because of an “unstable working environment” but Borthwick, speaking about the changes for the first time, insisted there was continuity in the make-up of his back room staff.

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“I see that as being pretty seamless in terms of the way we operate. There is a whole lot of consistency there in Richard Wigglesworth, Tom Harrison, Kevin Sinfield and Andrew Strawbridge,” Borthwick said. “Clearly there is a change with Felix deciding he didn’t want to work with the England team going forward, but Joe is a coach I have known and respected for a long time.

“We know each other pretty well and he is also somebody who has visited the camp many times previously. He has a pretty good understanding of how we operate.”

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Jones, who helped South Africa win the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, has been working remotely since telling England he wanted to leave and Borthwick declined to discuss his post-autumn future. “It’s not something I am considering because as you would expect my attention is on the games that are right in front of us.

“Analysis is one of Felix’s great strengths as a coach and he has been analysing and studying the opposition. He has also been doing the handover and transition to Joe El-Abd to take our defence forward.”

Borthwick named a 36-man squad for the autumn that is missing first choice scrum-half Alex Mitchell because of a neck injury that has prevented him from playing this season. Mitchell now faces the prospect of missing all four Tests in a schedule that begins against the All Blacks and continues against Australia, South Africa and Japan.

“We are assessing it and given the nature of the injury we are ensuring we do everything absolutely right by Alex. He had an assessment a week or so ago that showed some signs of improvement. There is another assessment in a few weeks. I don’t want to be ruling players in or out in the circumstances but it’s clearly very, very tight.”

Henry Slade’s return from shoulder surgery is imminent and the decision facing Borthwick is whether to give him a match for Exeter before the New Zealand showdown. The outlook on George Ford and Fraser Dingwall is also positive as they recover from respective thigh and knee problems, pointing to their comebacks early in the autumn.