{"id":265775,"date":"2025-07-15T02:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265775\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T02:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:27:21","slug":"steve-borthwick-eager-to-bottle-spirit-of-england-tour-success-in-argentina-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265775\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Borthwick eager to ‘bottle spirit’ of England tour success in Argentina : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man hired by England to find Eddie Jones\u2019 successor has given his verdict on head coach Steve Borthwick\u2019s time in charge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigel Redman, a former England second-row turned Rugby Football Union \u2018kingmaker\u2019, advised Twickenham chief Bill Sweeney on Borthwick\u2019s appointment at the end of 2022.<\/p>\n

England<\/a> have since played 35 Tests and remain in the same world ranking position of five they were the day the Cumbrian took charge.<\/p>\n

But after a turbulent 2024 in which they won only five of 12 internationals<\/a>, the Red Rose brigade are riding the wave of a six-match winning run \u2013 their longest unbeaten streak for five years.<\/p>\n

USA clash up next<\/p>\n

As England fly to Washington to prepare for their final mission of the season, against the United States on Saturday, Redman\u2019s judgement on the boss can today be revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is that he is the right man for the job,\u201d said the man previously responsible for selecting British Swimming\u2019s coaches for the 2016 Rio Olympics \u2013 Team GB\u2019s most successful Games in the pool for a century before they bettered it in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve is always looking to be better. He\u2019s not happy with things, he\u2019s always looking for the next thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the way things have evolved, from going to a Rugby World Cup in 2023, getting to a semi-final, almost to a final, to the way England have played since.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 12 months or more a number of marginal decisions, little things, went against us,\u201d added Redman, pointing to a run of five successive narrow defeats just last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019ve had a few go with us and I bet you that\u2019s down to a more confident, more clear team. That has been building, I think, since Steve took over.\u201d<\/p>\n

International Team of the Week: Five Springboks make cut while \u2018real find\u2019 for Wales and England forward hailed after \u2018statement\u2019 performance<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The stunning Jamie George comment that rocked Steve Borthwick as England determined to \u2018keep pushing\u2019 after series win<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Borthwick signed a five-year contract when he succeeded Jones in December 2022. Redman is clear he is the man for the future as well as the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we will arrive at the World Cup in good shape \u2013 and I think we\u2019ll even get better after as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is amazing to think that only eight months ago the RFU was required to issue a vote of confidence in Borthwick after an autumn where he lost at home to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa on successive weekends.<\/p>\n

England responded by finishing runners-up in the Six Nations, beating champions France and missing out on winning the title by just a single point.<\/p>\n

They have followed that up by sweeping Argentina 2-0 in the Pumas\u2019 backyard, despite 14 senior players being away with the British & Irish Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis group have been brilliant,\u201d Borthwick<\/a> said as he headed to the US from Buenos Aires. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud of these players and the spirit that they have, which is incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to bottle the spirit of La Plata, the spirit of San Juan, and take it with us wherever we go.<\/p>\n

Continued development<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is the continued development of how we are trying to play. You can see that this is a team that can move the ball, that has the ability to score. And you can see depth.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the back-row in particular, look at the performance of Ben Curry, Tom Willis, Sam Underhill. Look at the bench, Guy Pepper, Alex Dombrandt. You\u2019ve got people like Henry Pollock, and how he has been performing for the Lions, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s tremendous competition in the back-row. Selection is always on your mind, about where we are going and what we need to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borthwick has called-up two hookers for the final leg of the tour, summoning Bristol\u2019s Gabriel Oghre and Leicester\u2019s Jamie Blamire to replace Lions-bound Jamie George and Theo Dan, who suffered a tour-ending knee injury when taking his place in the second Test in San Juan.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: England player ratings v Argentina: George Ford the \u2018man of the series\u2019 as bench \u2019tilts tight contest\u2019<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man hired by England to find Eddie Jones\u2019 successor has given his verdict on head coach Steve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[393,225,90462,12,4151,79,26349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-265775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-england","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-internationals","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-steve-borthwick","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114854890286032138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}