- England’s Rugby World Cup Preparations Under Scrutiny
- Eddie Jones’s Departure and RFU’s Succession Plan
- Steve Borthwick’s Leadership and England’s Playing Style
Here we are, here we are, and here we are. So, 16 days before the World Cup they have spent the last four years preparing for, England arrives at their final warm-up game against Fiji on Saturday sixth in the world rankings, shepherded by a new coaching team who are on a run of three wins in seven, steeled by a defense conceding an average of four tries per game, sharpened by an attack that has scored that many tries in their previous 400 minutes, and led by a captain – and starting fly-half – who is Oh, and their only specialist No. 8 will also miss their team’s season opener.
Do you hear that distant rumble? Perhaps Argentina, Japan, Samoa, and Chile are quaking in their training boots because England is about to launch the most elaborate rope-a-dope since Muhammad Ali came out striking in the eighth round. Possibly a pair of loose chariot wheels are rolling down the hill. Or perhaps it is simply the resonant intonation of Bill Sweeney, the chief executive officer of the Rugby Football Union. “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Or: “Some things weren’t quite clicking,” as Sweeney put it after the RFU fired Eddie Jones in December. We all anticipated that they would function in a particular manner, but they did not.
If he hadn’t fixed it, you’d have to question his 55% pay raise.
Sweeney had just two valid reasons to keep Jones on the pitch, neither of which related to rugby.
The first was that the RFU extended his contract through the World Cup based on his performance. This includes one title as a consultant with South Africa in 2007, two runner-up finishes as a head coach in 2003 and 2019, and one of the greatest underdog performances in sports history when Japan defeated South Africa in 2015.
Jones has demonstrated throughout his career that he understands how to lead a team to the tournament. It is possibly the only thing you could say about him in the clubhouse without sparking an argument.
The RFU supported him until it was almost too late to make a change, then capitulated when England lost by 14 points to the Springboks a week after drawing 25-25 with New Zealand. Oh, and Jones also made disparaging remarks about the public education system. Anyway, Australia has now accepted this wager. It will be intriguing to observe how this turns out for them.
The other, more germane reason for keeping Jones was that the RFU finally had a succession plan in place. It was common knowledge that they desired Steve Borthwick, who was familiar with Jones and the players from his time as England’s forwards coach. He had won a championship with the Leicester Tigers, but he still required a little more time to develop as a head coach, assemble his support staff, and formulate his plans for the team’s next World Cup cycle.
He received a hospital pass instead (“Here, Steve, catch this!”). It appears increasingly likely that he and his team are about to be utterly destroyed.
A succession plan is designed to give you control over the present and the future. The RFU has orchestrated a plan that compromises both objectives. Borthwick is a good man and meticulous, but witnessing his team stumble through these warm-ups evokes memories of his time as England’s captain, which was marked by an earnest and laborious hangdog inefficiency. With so little time to work and no actual knowledge of Jones’s plan for the next six months, Borthwick has, understandably, decided that they should follow the example of the Major administration and return to the basics. He has England playing a variation of rugby version 1.0.
They now resemble a cover band of the 2019 team that reached its zenith when defeating the All Blacks 19-7 in Yokohama: it’s the same faces, playing the same sort of power game, but it’s all a touch monotonous, lumpy, and unconvincing. After four years, everyone has long since moved on.
Borthwick has spoken of drawing inspiration from the 2007 tournament, in which England were humiliated 36-0 by South Africa in the group stage but went on to win the championship. The notion is unappealing because senior players have to replace managers, but it may be their best chance.
