After a horrific Six Nations campaign, the England coach’s head is on the chopping block, even if that isn’t necessarily fair.
It’s no secret: England were massively disappointing in the most recent tournament and deserve the scathing criticism they have received.
Still, I don’t think sacking Borthwick is the solution to bringing the team closer to a first World Cup since I was born in 2003.
Rant Sport’s Loki de Pontes looks at the coach’s chances of survival and the future of English rugby.
Context
Borthwick’s career as England’s head coach started off rocky, as the team’s results were up and down for much of 2023.
Fortunately, he solidified his position with a competent Rugby World Cup performance, with the team narrowly losing to the Springboks in the semi-finals.
This was followed by a middling 2024 Six Nations and then a heartbreaking 2025 edition, in which England lost to France on bonus points.
While this is far from a perfect record, it’s clear Borthwick was able to coach a decent side and compete on all fronts. 11 straight Test wins in 2025 is nothing to sniff at.
Disaster
Still, it’s impossible to deny just how horrendous their recent 2026 Six Nations was.
Terrible games against both Scotland and Ireland, and a first-ever loss to Italy was capped off by handing France the title on the final day.
However, that’s not the entire picture.
England led for most of the Italy game before losing two players to yellow cards and collapsing in the final moments.
The performance against France was actually impressive, with the game on a knife-edge and only lost after a controversial refereeing decision.
YOU MAY LIKE: NFL: Where is Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson going?
Coach inquest
It only makes sense that the England head coach would be in trouble after such an awful showing, even if England were better than the results seem.
On The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast, former world champion Mike Brown questioned Borthwick’s ability to lead the team.
“When I listen to him, it doesn’t get me going to support England,” he said.
His criticisms of the coach are fair. Borthwick doesn’t come across as the passionate, fight-to-the-death leader that some would want.
Instead of calling for his head, Brown and former team-mate Jason Tindall had another idea.
No easy solution
They proposed that another, more media-savvy personality could come in and serve as the “figurehead” who allows Borthwick to keep his job as coach.
All respect to them, I think this would be an idiotic decision.
At the end of the day, fans would still blame the person in charge of setting up the team. That’s who determines results. Rassie Erasmus recognised this when he changed his title from the Springboks’ Director of Rugby to Head Coach.
And I think that guy knows a bit about rugby.
I agree with Joe Marler’s more balanced opinion on the subject.
“I think the fans just buy into whether you win or lose”, he argued with Brown.
Should results improve over the next few months, England supporters will be right back behind Borthwick and forget all about the recent disappointments.
If they don’t, then they have good reason to sack him and look for a suitable replacement.
But right now, I don’t think moving on from a coach after one bad tournament is the right move.
READ NEXT: F1: Ferrari got it right, now everyone wants to change the rules
