Chris Jones

Now, the big questions are over the style, over his ability to really motivate.

And you kind of see two different types of coach, don't you?

You see those technical experts, but then you have the kind of more blood and thunder, motivational, just...

pushing those those emotional buttons and a coach with real emotional intelligence like no one would say warren gatlin was a kind of tactical mastermind but he often had the number of joe schmidt who most people would say well schmidt was a better technical coach but gatlin had brilliant brilliant emotional intelligence and he knew exactly how to get a tune out of his welsh players so that's a bit where borthwick finds himself in a fix isn't it joe because when the results aren't going well then scrutiny does fall on the style scrutiny does fall on the kind of motivation and

And it's not as if his England coaching team is full of a Paul O'Connell type figure or a Sean Edwards.

Richard Wigglesworth, again, young coach, highly rated, but he's not got those same miles on the clock and that same kind of blood and thunder type inspiration that you get from a Sean Edwards or an Andy Farrell or the like.

So the funny thing, Borthwick's teams have played some decent rugby, you know,

There are a lot of parallels with the Six Nations two years ago when they had a stinker in Murrayfield, then beat Ireland at Twickenham, then played some really good rugby against France in Lyon.

And during the Argentina tour, during the All Blacks game, there is enough to suggest that Borthwick is not completely...

wedded to this style of play the issue is when the style of play doesn't quite come off when England do look clunky in attack then the conversations come up about this the kick first approach and that balance between heads up rugby and the game plan at the moment I think the kind of devotion to the game plan is probably taking precedence over England playing a bit what's in front of them

For me, I think a lot of it's got to be mental because I don't think everything can go wrong without there being something just off in terms of the mindset and the preparation.

Because if it was one thing, if they were clunky in attack, but they were brilliant in defense and their set piece was excellent, they were making good decisions, but the final pass wasn't sticking, you go, okay, that could be worked on.

But because they've been loose at the breakdown and their kicking game hasn't worked, they're not winning enough area balls, they're not executing their chances, their line-out is clunky or the line-out is scruffy and they're thrown to the front of the line-out a lot.

They're not able to launch and they just look a team short of confidence.

So it's kind of a mindset, confidence, belief thing as much as anything.

And then there are players who are probably playing within themselves.

Because if you look at the Italy game,

I don't think any England player had a particularly bad day at the office.

They just all played at six out of 10, maybe Ben Alasside, whereas Italy would have a Tommaso Menoncello playing to an eight, nine world-class level.

Likewise, the back row, the wingers were, were eating up meters.