Steve Borthwick was right – England weren’t good at anything, admits Eddie Jones

Borthwick took over as England head coach in December following the sacking of Jones

Duncan Bech
Friday 10 February 2023 12:53 GMT
Comments
Six Nations week one round-up: England struggle as Ireland make statement

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Eddie Jones admits that Steve Borthwick was “probably right” when stating he had inherited an England team that “weren’t good at anything”.

Borthwick, who took over from Jones as head coach in December, offered the damning assessment following last Saturday’s 29-23 Six Nations defeat by Scotland at Twickenham.

Jones was sacked after presiding over a dire 2022 and, having now taken charge of Australia, he accepts his attempts to enhance England’s attack created problems.

“Well he’s probably right and that’s part of the problem,” Jones told the podcast EDDIE. “We were trying to morph a team that had had a very good set-piece and very good kicking game.

“The way that the game is played at the moment, that will win you games but it’s probably not good enough to be World Cup champions.

“And so expanding the attack sometimes takes away from your strengths and they’re going through that difficult period now where they’re trying to get that balance right in their game.

“But Steve will fix it. There’s no doubt he’ll fix it. And keep blaming me. That’s all right, I’ve got a pretty strong back and pretty strong shoulders to absorb that.”

England play Italy at Twickenham in the second round of matches this weekend.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in