Will Greenwood believes Maro Itoje’s captaincy is a ‘marginal’ gain but raises concerns of England ‘reaching the very highest level’

England are preparing to face Ireland in Dublin and the players are called to a meeting. “You lose this game,” the head coach tells them. “You’ve got nowhere to go.”

Inside the room rugby men shift uneasily in their seats. “This is a huge, must-win game,” the coach continues. “There is no hiding place, no-one to blame.

“Honestly guys,” adds Clive Woodward, turning up the heat. “If you’re serious about the World Cup you have to win this game.”

Clive Woodward’s approach

You could have heard a pin drop, Will Greenwood would later say. “It was an incredible moment. Most people play down the size of an occasion. Clive went the other way.

“‘You’ve got nowhere else to go’.. what an amazing thing to say. We loved it. And you saw what came of it.”

Greenwood is reminiscing about Anglo-Irish rivalry ahead of next week’s Six Nations opener at the Aviva.

He mentions 2003 not because England won a Grand Slam decider 42-6 and eight months later added the World Cup, rather to make an important point about motivation from within.

“Internal pressure is critical,” he says. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall when Steve Borthwick sets the tone for the week.

“Does he challenge them and go, ‘F**k, lads, we can’t have another 2024’. Or is it still “process, process” and that sort of stuff? It will be very interesting.”

The Smith and back-row debate

Anyone who follows Greenwood on Instagram will know what the England rugby team means to him and how keenly he has felt the pain of too many of years of, let’s be generous, mediocrity.

His dad played for, captained and coached the national side. He himself won 55 caps in the most successful era the Red Rose has known.

So it was with a heavy heart that he spoke of a team “completely and utterly devoid of confidence” after they lost for the seventh time in 11 Tests last year. He walked away from the South Africa defeat groaning, “I Just don’t know what we’re world-class at”.

Whatever tone Borthwick chooses to strike in the Irish capital Greenwood is clear that he has to change something if England are to contend for the first time since 2020.

He believes firmly that Tom Willis must start at number eight and, given George Furbank, the “first name” on his team sheet, is unavailable due to injury, wants Marcus Smith at 15.

“I don’t like playing people out of position,” he adds. “But if you like Furbank as a player, which I do, I’m wanting to pick the bloke who’s closest to him [in style] and that is Marcus rather than Freddie [Steward].

“Marcus has scored some unbelievable tries and done some incredible things that no other England fly-half has ever been able to do. But at some stage you’ve got to stick a hanky to the end of a joust and go somewhere. And that’s where I would go.

“Which means I’m also over-indexing on Fin Smith as fly-half. I really rate him as a player. If I was Henry Slade, I’d be going, ‘Oh, I’d like to play with him at 10’.”

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England captaincy

Borthwick has already made one significant alteration, replacing Jamie George as captain with Saracens club mate Maro Itoje. Greenwood has no problem with that.

“Jamie is an awesome fella,” he says. “But I think on the back of the year England had in 2024, sometimes you just need a change of voice.

“The margins are so fine in professional sport. Will England get a 50% uplift in performance because Maro’s captain? No, but we might get a marginal increase in performance with the way that he captains. That’s all you’re ever searching for.”

Selection is one thing, giving whoever is chosen the right system in which to parade their talents, another altogether. Let’s not mince words, in the autumn England’s blitz defence was a horror show.

“I’m pretty certain they’ll be having a long, hard think about the way they defend going into this tournament,” says Greenwood. “There are times to go hard and times to use a touchline. I’m hoping they’ll go back to a little bit of that.

“Too often in 2024 they conceded between 12 and 17 points in a wholly avoidable fashion, making it close to impossible for a really good bunch of lads, who were starting to play with way more energy and tempo, to find a way to win.

“If they double down on the same system then I am concerned about England reaching the very highest level of world rugby consistently.

“If they tweak their D, have a little bit more ownership around when to go, when not to go – as opposed to ‘we go all the time’ – I think there’s loads to be enthused about.”

Greenwood continues: “I’m not standing here beating England’s drum and blowing their trumpet going, ‘this is going to be awesome. England are going to win everything’.

“I’m coming at it thinking England are a half-decent team who have moved away from the kick, kick, box kick the whole time. Left behind the ‘just literally set up for box kick anytime you’re in your own half’, to, actually, ‘let’s have a look up and explore’.

“If they can play with the sort of tempo they did in New Zealand and remove the points they are coughing up too easily, that’s an exciting team to be around.

“And having three games out of five at home has to give them a great chance.”

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Threats to England

Now his mind is whirring as he weighs up the alternative threats. He comes up with three: France, Ireland and Scotland.

“It feels like now’s a good time to be French – anyone who’s watching Toulouse at the moment should be terrified,” he says.

“But the Six Nations is not home and away and France have to go to Dublin and Twickenham. It’s why we love the tournament.”

So much of this greatest of sporting championships comes down to momentum, hence the importance of Ireland-England on Saturday week.

“Are Ireland vulnerable?” Greenwood asks. “Have they lost their ability with Andy Farrell away with the Lions? Are some of those players starting to tip [over the edge]? Are England on the cusp of regaining their place at the top table?”

And what about that English confidence that ebbed away the deeper they sank into November?

“Listen, professional sports people are pretty resilient,” he says. “Autumn doesn’t exist to these 23-year-olds.

“That’s gone. I mean, Jesus Christ, remember being that age?! You don’t give a monkeys what you did last week, never mind four months ago. You’re just like, I’m in the team right now. I am invincible.”

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