RFU emphasise Steve Borthwick contract stance ahead of Nations Championship

Steve Borthwick enters England’s autumn campaign with the backing of the Rugby Football Union to see out his contract whatever the results between now and the World Cup.

Borthwick’s reign as head coach was extended until after the 2028 Six Nations two months ago, even though earlier this year England had crashed to their worst performance in the tournament’s history.

Victories against Fiji and Argentina during a July tour that opened with a comprehensive loss to South Africa eased the pressure on Borthwick, who is currently preparing his team for Sunday’s Nations Championship clash with Australia at Allianz Stadium.

Four years ago his predecessor Eddie Jones was sacked at the end of an autumn that produced just one win in four Tests, but RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney ruled out the prospect of Borthwick leaving before Australia 2027.

“We’re committed to Steve,” said Sweeney, who made the decision to axe Jones in 2022 after his seven-year reign unravelled amid losses to the Pumas and Springboks and a draw with New Zealand.

“We’ve extended his contract until the middle of 2028. We believe in what he’s doing.

“We had a difficult Six Nations this year, we accept that, but we just want to see continued progress and we’re backing him to get that done.”

England’s four defeats in the Six Nations, including an historic first loss to Italy, weakened Borthwick’s position entering the post-tournament review, but he emerged from the process with the RFU’s support.

And Sweeney subsequently decided to extend his tenure by a further eight months after he was originally scheduled to step down upon completion of the World Cup.

“We just felt that going into a World Cup is a tough enough challenge anyway,” said Sweeney, who added that succession planning for the post-Borthwick era is “looked at continually”.

“We wanted our coaching team to be focused just on the World Cup, not be thinking ‘Oh, I don’t have a role lined up’ and be thinking about that in the build-up.

“It was to take away any distraction around that and transition the same coaching team into the 2028 Six Nations. That was the sole intention.

“It’s exactly the same in the Olympic world. All of the performance directors have contracts that go six months beyond the Olympic Games. We wanted to take away any uncertainty or disruption.”

England play Australia, Japan and New Zealand this autumn before taking part in finals weekend, the climax to the inaugural Nations Championship that is being staged at Twickenham over three days.

It is billed as a battle between the hemispheres as rivals from the north and south face off according to where they finish in their pool tables, with results from July also factored in.

Ticket sales for the two finals on Friday November 27 have been sluggish, but uptake for the Saturday and Sunday are more encouraging, according to Sweeney.