Chris Jones
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But if they take a heavy beating in the stad, then I think those same conversations will pop back up.
Now, I think it's probably a conversation to have after Paris because Borthwick has a history of rallying.
We were talking about England being in crisis before the World Cup in 2023.
They went on to reach the semifinals and very near the final.
We were talking about England being in some element of crisis back end of 2024.
Fast forward 12 months and they were on a 12-match winning spree.
So he has been able to ride out these storms.
The question is, can he do it for a third time?
And has the kind of manner of the defeat raised a lot of questions?
And is there a kind of...
more of a deeper rooted mindset confidence issue within the camp that they might not be able to fix at short notice so I think I know we've said this a lot the last few weeks but I think we're going to find out a lot about this England team and the direction of travel and how much life is left in this England team come Saturday night and
I think that's true because he's just not that kind of personality like an Eddie Jones or maybe a Warren Gatland who is going to be able to entertain and to bewitch people in his press conferences and be able to really capture the imagination through his public proclamations.
He's simply not that kind of guy.
His credentials have always been based around his attention to detail, his technical skills as a coach.
And there really isn't anyone who has been coached by Steve Borthwick that doesn't praise his detail and his technical expertise.
He clearly has many, many things going for him as a coach.
He's got too good a CV when you think of the Lions in 2017 and you think of...
winning the title with Leicester at a very short turnaround.
They were bottom of the league and he won it in 18 months.
He's got too good a CV for that to be anything but the case that he is a very good coach.