Courtney Lawes pinpoints the ‘critical’ flaw in Steve Borthwick’s coaching leaving England players clueless
England head coach Steve Borthwick speaking to players during training in 2025 Six Nations and former Test flanker Courtney Lawes.
Former England star Courtney Lawes has labelled Steve Borthwick a “reactive” coach and believes that his side are unable to adapt on the field.
The Red Rose are currently in the midst of a dreadful run of form having claimed just two victories in nine games – both against Japan.
Despite being competitive in every match, they have failed to get on the right side of the scoreline and Lawes believes that he has identified the problem.
‘A common theme’ for England’
“It has been a common theme over the past year and in Dublin we did not adapt to Ireland’s change of tactics or find a way of relieving the pressure,” he wrote in his Times column.
“Does this England side have enough players of that ilk, who are capable of turning a game?
“Or are the players not involved enough in developing the game plan to be comfortable reacting to what they see and feel out on the field and adapting it on the fly?
“I am not inside the England camp any more but, from my own recent experience of Test rugby and playing under Borthwick, it seems to be a bit of both.”
England began the game well against Ireland, like they have done quite regularly since last July, but as the match wore on, the hosts got on top and the visitors failed to react.
That adaptability is where “England are lacking”, according to Lawes, and the ex-Test flanker says it is in stark contrast to when he was in the team during the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
During that tournament, they overcame an early red card for Tom Curry against Argentina to emerge with a dominant triumph.
Lawes stated that it was down to the players reacting to the situation in front of them, something they are not doing now.
“The more that players are involved in the construction of the game plan, the more they are able to adapt on the fly. That is critical in rugby,” he wrote.
“If you’re just being told ‘when and where’ all week, then when it all goes wrong you’ve got no idea. You’re in a boat without a paddle.
“England landed the first blows in Dublin and Ireland adapted. When Ireland countered, England had no answers and hit the canvas.
He added: “Borthwick is a reactive coach. We had a very, very specific game plan for the 2023 World Cup semi-final against South Africa.
“It wasn’t necessarily anything to do with our strengths or how we wanted to play. We just knew the most effective game plan to try to beat them.
“Either you have your set game plan, which you stick to and batter everybody else with, or you switch it up and mould your approach depending on the opposition. The latter is Borthwick’s style.”
England changes
Borthwick is reportedly set to make a few changes for the upcoming Six Nations game with France which includes bringing in Fin Smith at fly-half, a decision Lawes agrees with.
That means moving Marcus Smith to full-back in an attempt to take advantage of France’s preference for kicking long rather than putting up contestables.
“England’s best bet against France is to keep the ball on the field because Les Bleus have got a really big, kind of slow, grumbly pack. The longer you can keep the ball in play and make them move, the better off you’re going to be,” Lawes added.
“The flipside of that is they’ve got an unbelievable back line. So if you don’t kick well or you give them opportunities to counterattack, you’re going to be in trouble.”
