LONG READ Mick Cleary: Five things Steve Borthwick has to do in Girona

England expects, but recent missteps mean that there is less confidence Steve Borthwick’s side can gift the nation with a first Grand Slam since 2016, especially with favourites Ireland and France in their opening fixtures, but with the right approach, Maro Itoje’s men could yet surprise fans but only if they get their preparation right…

1 – Wrap ‘Em in Cotton Wool

England have no right to cite hard luck stories after they were forced into a five-man reshuffle of resources just before their departure for Girona. England have more players at their disposal than most any other countries and if anyone can withstand a late flurry of injuries, they can. Compare their brief-lasting headache with that of Scotland’s Gregor Townsend who would need the level-headedness of a Greek stoic to weather the dreadful news that star-man centre Sione Tuipulotu is out for the championship as is lock Scott Cummings. You might even argue that England have enhanced their options with the call-ups for rampaging wunderkind, Henry Pollock, and Sale scrum-half, Raffi Quirke. Both add zip and energy. Even so, the potential loss of Northampton’s Alex Mitchell, is a beast of a burden to bear. Mitchell is the clear, designated No 9, sharp-witted and spring-heeled, primed to do the sort of job for England that a Jamison Gibson-Park has done these past few years for Ireland. Steve Borthwick is not a knock-lumps-out-of-each other coach – unlike Eddie Jones who managed to clock up a few casualties in camp – but he knows that he needs a settled squad to take on what is a fiendishly tricky opening to the tournament. Any more withdrawals and England are on a very slippery slope.

2 – Ditch the Ange Postecoglou book – there’s no defence in it.

Borthwick draws far and wide on other sports for coaching tips and has revealed that he was a fan of Postecoglou’s ‘Angeball’. You can only hope that Borthwick’s record in this Six Nations Championship stacks up better than the Aussie’s current dismal run at Spurs and that he manages to add more steel than is currently being shown by Tottenham. England have, mercifully, ditched their slavish addiction to the blitz defence and will operate a more hybrid version from hereon in. There is nothing wrong with adhering to a blitz as the Springboks showed but it was in danger of becoming a cult addiction for England – done for the sake of it when it clearly wasn’t working as it should. There is a lot of myth-making and bull spoken about the virtues of this or that system. What is needed above all else is buy-in and repetition, defending as a team and not as a dozen random blokes who have just met in the pub car-park. Girona is all about honing the defence.

3 –   Commit to a Centre Partnership for the Tournament.

Form can scupper the best laid plans but England really do have to solver their centre conundrum or they will be going nowhere not only in this tournament but onwards towards the World Cup in Australia in 2027. The Big Boys all have high-end operators in midfield – think, Bundee, Henshaw and Ringrose for Ireland, Scotland’s now-stricken Tuipulotu and Huw Jones, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel for South Africa. France are none too shabby either. You get the picture. It seems England have gone through as million combinations (a slight exaggeration) since Greenwood, Tindall and Catt proved to be so influential, Carling and Guscott a decade before that. Since then, only muddle and confusion. What does all this mean for 2025? Well, Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence ought to be in pole position. They have all the skills, the experience, the mindset to make it work. But it isn’t working. Or not as you would want it. The combo has little fluence or potency. Borthwick has a stick or twist dilemma to address. If he changes, then he has to commit for a significant amount of time, ideally the entire tournament. Whatever he decides to do – and my preference would be for Slade at 12 and Lawrence in the outside channel – he has to be clear that this is their chance to cement their roles or, conversely, that this is the last opportunity for them as a duo. The claims of Fraser Dingwall for the inside channel have plenty of appeal, maybe all the more so if an all-Saints’ half-back pairing for Mitchell and Fin Smith were on the field. England have to fix this problem.

4 –  Smith or Smith?

There should be no hanging about in Girona, waiting to see how the pair go in training, stalling on selection to see if there is any truth in the notion that Marcus gets a brilliant and productive amount from himself in attack but not necessarily from those around him while Fin draws the optimum from the back-line, shuffling through his options. The Northampton man is no slouch defensively either, a consideration when a Caelan Doris might be headed you way in just over a week’s time. You can spend no end of time scrolling through the attributes of either man. They are plain to see and they’re not going to change. Borthwick has to pin his colours to the mast from Day One in Girona and Marcus Smith should be told that he is the man to lead the England back-line into the championship. Quite how much time Borthwick then spends on his mid-match substitution strategy is another matter. Marcus to full-back is an option but only if Leicester’s Man-of-the-Skies, Freddie Steward, is on the field. Much as England have pledged themselves to pace, Steward’s value under the high ball has been hugely enhanced by the directive on escort runners. Steward has to play and Marcus Smith has to start at no.10.

5 –  Empower Maro Itoje

You might think that Steve Borthwick has already made the big call when announcing Maro Itoje as captain last week. Not true. Borthwick now has to show the rest of the squad that he means it, that he believes in the Saracen’s ability to be a leader of substance in the way that every single captain of a World Cup-winning team has been. David Kirk, Nick Farr-Jones, Francois Pienaar, John Eales, Martin Johnson, John Smit, Richie McCaw and Siya Kolisi – captaincy matters even in this era of micro-managed game plans and instructions from the sidelines. England need Itoje to rise to the status of those who have lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy. How does he do that? By challenging Borthwick and the coaches to be better, for starters. He can’t be a passive recipient of orders. He has do to as Johnson did in the extra-time huddle in 2003 and tell Clive Woodward that the players had got this and for him to butt out. There needs to be more overt assertiveness from Itoje in that regard, better empathy and interaction with referees, more hard-edge across the board from the pack, more snarl at the breakdown and far, far better management of the last quarter. England have looked adrift in those closing 20 minutes, gasping and half-baked. If Itoje can help remedy all this, then England have found their man.