Steve Borthwick has turned to England’s 2003 World Cup winners to arrest his side’s drastic decline after enduring another setback with the scrum‑half Alex Mitchell ruled out for the rest of the Six Nations.
Borthwick’s squad were due on Wednesday night to have dinner with members of the 2003 team, including the captain Martin Johnson, the Test centurion Jason Leonard and Lewis Moody, who revealed in October that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Borthwick urged his players to use the opportunity to ask how they dealt with setbacks, after England’s Six Nations hopes went up in smoke for another year with the dismal 42-21 defeat against Ireland last Saturday, seven days after they were outclassed by Scotland.
Borthwick is under renewed pressure as a result and will lead England into their final two matches against Italy in Rome and France in Paris without Mitchell, who sustained a hamstring injury against Ireland. Jack van Poortvliet is standing by for the No 9 jersey while Ollie Lawrence has had a knee injection and is a doubt for the Italy match. George Furbank and Chandler Cunningham‑South, meanwhile, will come into consideration to respectively add back-row heft and creativity after both were among a tranche of players sent back to their clubs to feature this weekend.
Before turning his attentions to the Azzurri, however, Borthwick has tasked his under-fire players with soaking up as much information as they can from Johnson and co with Lawrence Dallaglio, Phil Vickery, Ben Kay, Paul Grayson, Richard Hill and Will Greenwood also due at England’s training base.
England fluffed their grand slam lines in 1999, 2000 and 2001 before finally completing a clean sweep in 2003, eight months before their World Cup triumph.
“The purpose of this is to learn from their experiences,” Borthwick said. “They had setbacks. They had moments where games, losses didn’t go the way they wanted them to. They had moments in games in that 2003 World Cup where it wasn’t going the way they wanted it to and they found a way through it.
“I look forward to those players sharing their experiences with our current players. Then a group of senior players will meet with them. And then we will all have dinner together this evening and have a chance to chat and learn from their experiences.
“The dinner is done by position group so I’m going to have the players sat in their relevant position. Each one of these players can share the role they played in their journey from being one of the key leaders of the team from someone who didn’t play as much but had a role in assisting and preparing the team.”
Borthwick also revealed that Moody addressed his players after their autumn victory against New Zealand. “It was incredibly moving,” he said. “He gave a heartfelt message to the team and you could hear a pin drop when he was speaking.
“The team have also expressed their desire to help in any way shape or form. In terms of [the dinner], it’s very much around English rugby and wanting the England rugby team to do well. He will be hosting a table with the back-rowers and addressing the senior players.”
After three days off, Borthwick and his assistants hosted a “forthright” review of their defeat, highlighting a litany of issues to be rectified. The head coach conceded that England’s “intensity” was not where it needed to be against Ireland and blamed their indiscipline after Freddie Steward and Henry Pollock were sent to the sin bin. A failure to take chances, the breakdown and no fewer than 24 turnovers coughed up have also been identified as areas where England let themselves down.
“Intensity has become the hallmark of this team, and the intensity on Saturday was not where we wanted to be,” Borthwick said. “And we have to make sure that come next Saturday, in Rome, that intensity from every minute, from every player on the pitch, is of the required standard.”
Mitchell’s withdrawal from the squad – who will train at Twickenham on Thursday – is a blow for Borthwick given the 28-year-old has established himself as head coach’s first-choice scrum-half since 2023. Raffi Quirke has been called up to the squad while Borthwick has Ben Spencer at his disposal, but Van Poortvliet is the favourite to start against Italy after replacing Mitchell midway through the first half against Ireland.
