by Steve Borthwick has challenged his players to be motivated by pulling on the England shirt which he believes dragged them down in their defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield.
The England head coach cited the “weight of the shirt” as a factor in their 30-21 win for which he has made three changes with winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, scrumhalf Alex Mitchell and second row George Martin coming into the team to face . Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday.
Borthwick admits they cannot afford to repeat their error-prone performance at Murrayfield, where they committed 25 handling errors, against what he believes is the “best team in the world”. But crucially he wants the team to accept the responsibility of representing the country rather than being burdened by it.
“If you watch the game this weekend, what a game for the shirt to lift you up. A great game for Twickenham to fuel the team,” said Borthwick. “Say it’s a game where every ounce of energy and fight is within the players, and you’re going to be tested against the best team in the world.
“We know there were errors against Scotland. This is probably the first time in a while that I have seen the weight of the shirt feel heavy on the players. You saw how we intended to play the way we started. If you start to deviate from the way you want to play, that leads to more errors.
“As a player and in teams I was part of, I saw that many players were feeling the weight of that shirt and I felt the test that the team was going through. The environment we are trying to create supports the players and we understand that mistakes are going to happen. What I am after is an answer to that. What do we learn from it? How fast do we move on from it?”
As first reported by Telegraph Sport, Exeter winger Feyi-Waboso will make his first start for England less than a year after turning out for Taunton Titans in the National League. Borthwick quickly advanced other wings. He started Ollie Hassell-Collins in last year’s Six Nations but dropped out after two games and gave Henry Arundell his first start for Ireland where he touched the ball just four times.
But Borthwick allowed Feyi-Waboso, who scored his second England try as a representative against Scotland, to enjoy himself, telling the 21-year-old to get as many touches as possible at Twickenham. “I remember years ago when James Lowe was playing for the Chiefs back in New Zealand and there was a game where he carried the ball over 20 times, he was off his wing to find the ball and he was a role model. for the wings finding the ball,” said Borthwick. “When I look at Manny what I see is his ability to come off the wing and pop up from 9 like he did in the Scotland game, pop up inside and outside 10. I’ve seen it time and time again pop up in the middle and do. pick and go at the ruck because he wants the ball in his hands and we saw that in the Scotland game. That’s my motivation for him, get that ball in his hands.
“We’ve seen great progress from Manny in these Six Nations. He deserves this opportunity. He came on the pitch two weeks ago and had an incredible impact. He is a player who wants the ball, who wants to carry it and who wants to overcome the team.”
Borthwick has long envied the Ireland system which fosters continuity and cohesion with 15 of Andy Farrell’s day squad coming from Leinster. Despite the fact that only two England full-backs – George Ford and Henry Slade – have kept the same shirts throughout the Championship for England, Borthwick dug thin under the impact of contraction and continuous change under predecessor Eddie Jones.
“When I trace this back, with the continuity of selection over the last few years it may not have always been so clear and it hasn’t always helped the team to have a lot of changes on a regular basis,” Borthwick said. . “And I think this is the right team for the game this weekend.
“I have looked closely at what has happened with the England team in previous cycles. I looked closely and compared. Things like selection continuity and integration. We can all see that sometimes that is not really the case. You see England doing well, in general, when they had a dominant club team and a large number of players coming from one team. You see that with other teams as well. My challenge is to secure and maximize all the players we have here and bring them together.
“But I also think this is a group of players who have made huge strides over the last year, and now we’ve started the next stage of the journey in these Six Nations. And the continuity of the selection, it’s an important factor.”
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