Who is Steve Borthwick? The England coach tasked with mounting Rugby World Cup challenge

Abraham Smith

The England rugby team has a new top dog at the helm and it’s a head coach who has steadily risen to the top after a storied career on and off the pitch. Former national team captain Steve Borthwick has transformed Leicester Tigers in recent years, guiding the Premier League’s most successful club from Also-Rans back to the title. Now, with just seven months to go before Rugby World Cup 2023, he has been tasked with doing the same for England on the biggest stage.

The RFU’s sacking of Eddie Jones was seen as risky by many, not least since he was appointed as the new head coach of his native Australia within weeks of his sacking. Borthwick’s later appointment put the former Bath, Saracens and England striker under immediate pressure with only the Six Nations and a couple of warm-up games to be expected before the World Cup.

Borthwick’s five-year deal suggests he is the long-term option going forward, as defense coach Kevin Sinfield joins him from Leicester’s backroom team. Nick Evans, the ex-Harlequin, has been hired as attacking coach, while Leicester legend Richard Cockerill, striker coach under Jones since 2021, will retain his place on the staff under the new leadership.

Borthwick and his team were only appointed at the end of December and have certainly been thrown in at the deep end in their attempt to turn England’s form around. Just five wins from 12 in 2022 cost Jones his job and with the Six Nations top of the list England will need to hit the ground running under their new manager if they want any chance of snatching the title from France before the World Cup later in this year.

Career of Steve Borthwick as a player

Born in Carlisle and raised in Preston, Borthwick played junior rugby in North West England before moving south to Bath where he made his Premier League debut in 1998. He stayed with Bath for a total of 10 seasons, winning the 2008 European Challenge Cup before joining Saracens. This move came shortly after his appointment as England captain for the 2008 Six Nations, in which England finished second.

He remained captain throughout 2008, overseeing disappointing seasons in New Zealand and at home in the Autumn Tests, but retained the post until March 2010 when injury ended his international career. At club level, Borthwick led Saracens to a Premiership title and two runners-up medals, including in a Heineken Cup final, before hanging up his boots in 2014 at the age of 34.

Borthwick: From England captain to head coach

Borthwick made a name for himself as a coach while still a player, and his close relationship with Jones, the man he is replacing in the England dugout, played a big part. Jones was technical advisor at Saracens when Borthwick joined the club and clearly saw something in Borthwick by hiring him as a forward coach with the Japan coaching team in 2012.

Borthwick remained Japan’s forward coach alongside Jones for three years, up until and including the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England. In that tournament, Japan beat the two-time world champions in Brighton, arguably the biggest upset in rugby history.

When Jones was appointed England manager, Borthwick joined him and took up the role of forward coach again for five years between 2015 and 2020. During that time England won two Six Nations titles, a Grand Slam, a Test series in Australia and reached the 2019 Rugby World Cup final. The pack played a pivotal role in every English success during this period as Borthwick’s stocks continued to rise.

Borthwick’s record as manager of the Leicester Tigers

Borthwick left England after the 2019 World Cup to become the new head coach of Leicester Tigers, the most successful team in Premier League history. However, the club had not won a title since 2013 or reached a European final since 2009. Leicester had finished 11th for the last two seasons, just clinging to Premier League survival and gaining just 29 points in 2019–20.

However, Borthwick’s arrival proved transformative almost immediately, nearly doubling the Tigers’ points tally to 54 in 2020-21 and reaching the European Challenge Cup final, which they agonizingly lost 18-17 to Montpellier. Leicester’s revival saw them finish sixth in the table but never troubled the play-off places, but going forward in 2021-22 the Tigers blew everyone out of the water.

With 20 wins of 24, a +274 point difference and 14 bonus points, the Tigers led the table with 94 points and conceded just 52 tries all season — by far the lowest tally in the league. Leicester stormed past Northampton in the play-off semi-finals and defeated the Saracens 15-12 at Twickenham in the final thanks to Freddie Burns’ late drop goal. In just two years, Borthwick’s steady hand and ability to get the best out of his players saw the Tigers move from bottom of the table back to their long-lost place at the top of English rugby.

Steve Borthwick returns to England as manager

While Leicester reached heights not seen in almost a decade under Borthwick, Eddie Jones’ England side in 2022 were on their worst form since the Australian was first appointed in 2015. They won just two of their five Six Nations games and came third. well behind Grand Slam winner France and runner-up Ireland.

A summer tour to Jones’ home country began with a 30-28 loss to the Wallabies in Perth, but England rallied in the second and third Tests, winning back-to-back weeks 25-17 and 21-17, taking home the series and relieved some pressure on Jones. However, the cracks were still there, particularly in attack as England scored fewer tries than Australia as the Tests progressed and relied heavily on Owen Farrell’s boot.

The autumn games proved to be Jones’ last, beginning with a surprise 30-29 loss to Argentina at Twickenham in which the hosts fared from their best. A 52-13 win against Japan got things going again, but it took England a small miracle to salvage a 25-6 draw with New Zealand the following week. The spirit of scoring three goals in the final eight minutes was admirable but soon forgotten by the Twickenham crowd after a dismal 27-13 defeat by South Africa in what ultimately proved to be Jones’ last game in charge.

Within 10 days of that loss to the Springboks, Jones was dropped from his post, and Borthwick was hired two weeks later. The new head coach, who returns to the England line-up after two glorious years at Leicester, has less than a year to prepare his side for a World Cup campaign with a hotly contested Six Nations ahead.

Rugby World Cup 2023 countdown

Borthwick’s coaching staff have largely accompanied him from Welford Road to Twickenham, most notably Sinfield, who joined the Tigers’ backroom team as defensive coach in 2021. Former Harlequin Nick Evans arrives as attacking coach, while Richard Cockerill, Leicester’s former rugby director, who was already on the books as striker coach, will be replaced in his post by Richard Wigglesworth and Aled Davies after the Six Nations.

However, Borthwick’s first game against Scotland did not go to plan as the Scots scored two early tries, one of which was a long-range strike from Duhan van der Merwe. England struck back every time thanks to a brace from Max Malins and took the lead after an early second-half try by Ellis Genge. Ben White answered almost immediately for Scotland, however, and Van der Merwe rushed on late on to give the visitors their second win at Twickenham – a feat that had never been accomplished before.

Borthwick and his team still have a long way to go before the World Cup, with Scotland’s four tries highlighting the need for better defence, but with the most occupied ranks of any rugby-playing nation, Borthwick is well equipped to launch an attack on glory .

Under his predecessor, England made it to the final at the last World Cup in Japan before being beaten by South Africa. Borthwick now needs to help that side regain their mojo and, having steered Leicester out of the doldrums to champions, England fans are hoping Borthwick’s influence will bear similar fruit in France.

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