LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Just get out there and give it a go. That’s all England expects.'

The Italian Job – The Failure. Never mind blowing the bloody doors off, England barely scratched the paintwork. Instead, just like Michael Caine’s bus balanced precariously over the cliff-edge, so too is a coach of another kind, Steve Borthwick, hanging on by his fingernails, clinging to the wreckage with seemingly not a clue as to how to resolve his predicament. England Rugby 2025-26: one step forward, several steps back and now close to crashing down into the canyon below.

Read the riot act? Done that. Have no-holds-barred training sessions, with bite and edge? Done that. Bring in celebrated winners, 2003 World Champions, Milan-Cortina Gold medallists? Done that. Try a bit of footie stardust with Thomas Tuchel? Done that. Make mass changes to show you mean business? Done that.

And all for what? La dolce vita turned terribly sour for Borthwick. And the fall-out means that his job is on the line, his hard-earned credibility shot to pieces. Borthwick once got caught up in a heated exchange with highly-respected commentator, Al Eykyn, after a hapless (but victorious) display in Rome, the then-England captain insisting that the performance had been quite good actually. Myth and reality, self-delusion, circling the wagons, give-‘em-nowt – Borthwick might think he has been here before, scarred and under pressure. But he hasn’t. This crisis is of another order altogether. England have been humiliated, opened up to ridicule.

How unfair and patronising that is to a fine Italian side, who themselves didn’t play to their top level although they did master the moments that mattered, is not the issue. Sport does not play by those rules. It is not about logical matters. It is not a spreadsheet of facts and figures, data-driven, albeit Borthwick’s strait-jacket game plans is one of the major gripes for fans.

No, this is all about perception. England have become the laughing stock of the 2026 Six Nations Championship, replacing Wales as the whipping-boys. Again, that might be a harsh and unforgiving assessment. But that is the view very much out there and the muttering will not cease until something happens to lift the gloom.

Borthwick might not yet have wholly lost the dressing-room (that’s reportedly a developing scenario) but he has certainly lost the love of the crowd. Not even a brief stay in Verona where England are based en route to Paris will add sparkle to that relationship. In the city of the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet had it easy by comparison trying to make a love affair work in a hostile environment. In many ways, Borthwick is lucky in that England are at the Stade de France for their final fixture of this benighted campaign. The prospect of cat-calls and jeers ringing round the Allianz Stadium at Twickenham could well have hastened the end-game for him .

As it is Le Crunch is shaping up to be La Catastrophe. Certainly, to judge by the hollow stares of his players as the final whistle sounded at the Stadio Olimpico, England are very close to being completely broken by the experience.

As it is Le Crunch is shaping up to be La Catastrophe. Certainly, to judge by the hollow stares of his players as the final whistle sounded at the Stadio Olimpico, England are very close to being completely broken by the experience. If this tournament were a boxing match then the referee would have stepped in on Saturday night and called a halt to proceedings so as to avoid further punishment to vulnerable minds and bodies. England are on the canvas and could well be counted out in Paris.

Will Borthwick be shown the door? Should Borthwick get the sack? In pubs and clubs rugby fans are asking those questions. This is no media-driven feeding frenzy. The fact that this might be a ridiculous state of affairs shortly after an admirable run of 12 successive victories is not the central point. England followers, of whom there were many, many thousands in Rome, deserve a full and frank appraisal of matters, not some PR platitude about having ‘full confidence on our man.’  Anything less than an open media conference would be unacceptable.

Even victories at two of the most difficult venues in world rugby – Paris and Johannesburg – would not quieten the clamour for Borthwick’s head. However, it would  be an upturn and, boy, how badly do England need that at the moment. There are practical issues in play, too, of course – who might replace Borthwick were the axe to fall? Scott Robertson? Michael Cheika? Phil Dowson? It is easy to drop names into the debate. It is far more difficult to justify why they might do better than Borthwick himself? And the RFU does not have a reputation for acting quickly.

But something has to be done, first and foremost as a PR exercise to staunch the flow, a legitimate operation in itself. England’s opponents scent blood, no one more so than the old fox who never misses a trick, Rassie Erasmus. England have made themselves vulnerable to all and sundry. Those sort of intangibles can only be rectified by doing the business on the field. England’s next two games, against France and South Africa, will be seminal.

There might still be a bit of slack to cut. Borthwick’s set-up was being praised as recently as a few months ago. He may never be cherished as an Erasmus is to his hard-core Springbok tribe, or Andy Farrell as an adopted son of Irish soil but there have been decent times in Borthwick’s reign.

There does not yet appear to be a seepage of discontent within the England camp. Might that yet start to trickle under the doors of Pennyhill Park? If it does, then Borthwick really is doomed. And to judge by the way his team performs, they are not on the same page as their head coach. Once that umbilical cord is stretched, once that trust is under strain, it invariably does not end well.

As it is, there might still be a bit of slack to cut. Borthwick’s set-up was being praised as recently as a few months ago. He may never be cherished as an Erasmus is to his hard-core Springbok tribe, or Andy Farrell as an adopted son of Irish soil but there have been decent times in Borthwick’s reign and that gets you some credit in the bank. A record-score calamity at the Stade de France, of course, would shift those sands once again. Borthwick needs to front-up and emulate Gregor Townsend as the resurrection  kid of the 2026 Championship. Yes, straws and clutching come to mind.

As the England players leave the ruins of their once-proud rugby empire behind them in Rome, they will do well to ponder their own part in this disastrous fall from grace. It should needle them that they did actually perform a bit better than they had against Scotland and Ireland, admittedly starting from a pretty low base. There was more fire and involvement from Maro Itoje, winning turnovers, being a nuisance, until the fragile state of his and his team’s current eco-system was laid bare with the daftest of yellow cards conceded. The captain has become a liability. Sam Underhill, who had had a typically robust game, had also erred. England had had a measure of control but that was it. Gone. On the rack. And Italy, who had professionally and properly kept themselves in the contest by kicking their goals, took advantage. Bravo. No-one would begrudge them their moment in the sporting sun.

It’s pointless running the rule over possible selection changes. Borthwick has tried this, that and t’other.  The Titanic and deckchair routine has already been done. England need various things over the coming days, even some TLC for they are wounded and hurting, but please no more strategy brainstorming sessions as to how to beat France. Just get out there and give it a go. That’s all England expects.