Opinion: ‘Embattled’ Steve Borthwick ‘staring down the barrel’ as Ireland bench ‘rips’ game away from England
England head coach Steve Borthwick and Ireland celebrate Tadhg Beirne try in 2025 Six Nations clash.
Steve Borthwick, England’s embattled head coach, is staring down the barrel after his team were blown apart by champions Ireland in a disastrous third quarter in Dublin.
The Red Rose boss arrived at the Aviva Stadium under instruction from his boss at the Rugby Football Union to win four games out of five in this Six Nations campaign after a truly awful 2024.
80 minutes in and the Cumbrian finds himself with zero wriggle room. Not after England coughed up a half-time lead with 22 unanswered points in a haunting 20-minute period.
Never mind that they rallied with two late tries to secure a losing bonus point, the damage was done. And with rampant France next up, fresh from a 43-0 monstering of Wales, the future does not bear thinking about.
The last time those nations met at Twickenham France put 53 points on Borthwick’s men. This French team is arguably better.
The art of closing out a win
England will reach for straws of consolation to clutch. They will point to a first half full of endeavour, ambition and sheer cussedness. And, for sure, it was impressive at times.
But when they ran out of gas there was no reserve of energy or class or anything really to draw upon as Ireland’s bench schooled England’s in the art of closing out a win.
And so here we are, picking through yet another England defeat. That is eight now in 13 Tests, 15 in Borthwick’s 29-match, three-year tenure. Shocking numbers for the world’s richest and best resourced rugby nation.
Borthwick spoke afterwards of his pride in how his players “attacked the game in the first half and came back at the end to score a few tries to get the bonus point”.
He made mention of the improvements defensively against one of the best attacking sides in the world.
These are crumbs of comfort, nothing more. They do not alter the bottom line that England aren’t any closer to being an 80-minute team. For all the class shown by Ollie Lawrence, Tom and Ben Curry, they are side still only able to play in fits and starts.
And yet they came into the game armed with more intent than you could shake a stick at. Tired of the criticism that stalked them through a woeful 2024, they wore the look of a side ready to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
From the moment they won their own kick-off they set the tone in the home of the champions. They brought line speed, attitude, pressure and belief. Above all they brought rugby IQ.
England’s improved first-half defence
Their defence, unfit for purpose throughout the autumn, was a thing of beauty. Fast line speed and drift, rather than the previously blunderful blitz and be [frequently] burned version.
Borthwick’s choice of personnel traded line-out height for pace at the breakdown, with three sevens preferred to a third line out jumper. It was a ballsy call, but appeared vindicated as Ben Earl and the Curry twins reduced the speed of Ireland’s ball to a trickle.
The reward was not long in coming. Marcus Smith sowed doubt in the home defence with a line break and when he went again, still with only eight minutes on the clock, it led to try time.
Lawrence punctured the line and when the ball came back Henry Slade dropped it onto his left foot for Cadan Murley to hare onto for his debut try.
Smith nailed the extras from the touchline and for a glorious moment all was right in Borthwick’s world. Then Earl dropped the restart and that moment was lost.
England never truly got their control back. Their gains now came on the back rather than front foot. Time and again they found new ways to frustrate the Irish attack and keep the crowd subdued and, yes, their application was impressive.
It got them to half-time in front, albeit after Ireland had given us the moment to savour, a muscling bust by James Lowe which left Alex Mitchell grasping thin air before Jamison Gibson-Park took the inside pass and stepped inside Freddie Steward to score.
Ireland take control as tired England wilt
The cost of all that endeavour, however, would be totted up in the second half as England tired and Ireland, bolstered by their bench, did not so much wrestle the game from the visitors’ grasp as rip it away from them.
First Bundee Aki powered through three defenders on the outside after Sam Prendergast picked him out in the wide channel with a zinger of a pass.
Next Lowe scorched into space England expected a front row forward to lumber into before stopping, stepping and sending over Tadhg Beirne.
Then Dan Sheehan claimed the try of the match, feeding Jack Conan to make the bust, regaining the ball and giving it this time to Lowe, who was too much for Tommy Freeman, then being on hand to receive the glory ball.
It all happened so fast as England froze in the headlights. Murley twice made big errors of judgement on his own try line when his team desperately needed him to lift the siege.
Replacements with big reputations came on and failed comprehensively to influence the contest, as the Irish bench showed them how it should be done.
England’s game collapsed in this period. As their line speed fell away, Ireland had time and space to do what they had been denied for most of the first 40. It made for chastening viewing.
That they emerged with a losing bonus point is deserving of praise. First Tom Curry, then Freeman, pounced after Ireland switched off, a mental error they could live to regret at the business end of the tournament.
But as both teams disappeared into the Dublin night that concern paled alongside those of England. A team on a journey but no closer to knowing how to get to its destination.
