Steve Borthwick has distanced himself firmly from the Eddie Jones era by promising an end to England mind games.
At the launch of the 2023 Six Nations Championship the new England head coach said he had no interest in winding up the opposition. “I’m going to be authentic and not play mind games,” said the former Leicester boss. “I’ll leave that to other coaches.”
Jones lobbing verbal grenades at opponents at this annual tournament launch was a feature of his time in charge. It worked in the early days of his reign but since the last World Cup more often than not blew up in his face.
In 2020 he warned France their youth policy could backfire and that England would hit them with “brutal physicality”. The French responded by thumping them after racing 17 points clear before England even knew what day it was.
He was at it again last year, telling Scotland they were red-hot favourites to beat England, whilst questioning if they could shoulder the weight of expectation. He said exactly the same to Ireland before playing the ‘red-hot’ card a third time, telling France they had “no excuses” not to deliver.
England crashed to defeat against all three and Jones ended up out of a job. Borthwick’s style has never been to talk the talk, preferring actions over words. He insists that won’t change now he has the top job.
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PA)
“What I’m going to do is be me and be authentic to me,” he said. “My strategy is to be very up front, but I’m focusing on my team and not all the others because we’ve got plenty of work to do.
“I can’t do anything about the other teams right now and the reality is we’re a little bit behind. You saw that in the autumn.”
