Dan Cole, the England prop, launched a robust defence of head coach Steve Borthwick as he was questioned about his side’s losing streak and late lapses by long-time team-mate Ben Youngs.
The pair picked over England’s 29-20 defeat by South Africa on their podcast For the Love of Rugby, with Youngs suggesting that Borthwick’s team cannot continue to brand themselves as an inexperienced group with senior players such as Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Maro Itoje and Henry Slade now boasting plenty of caps.
He also argued that England “can’t keep living off” last year’s World Cup campaign, during which they reached the semi-final before going down to the Springboks in a tight affair.
In an episode entitled Coley Gets Grilled (which you can listen to below), Youngs disputed that the current streak of five Test losses could be compared to a similar slump in 2018, because the latter had been foreshadowed by two successful years in 2016 and 2017 under Eddie Jones.
A lively exchange also addressed the defence, particularly Grant Williams’s try following missed tackles from Genge and George Martin, as well as the input of former defence coach Felix Jones. Cole took aim at the tone of recent media coverage, too, saying: “I just think sometimes with the England team, you can do no right from wrong.”
The 37-year-old downplayed England’s predicament by praising New Zealand and South Africa as two of the best three teams in the world. He stated that England had endured “two really bad games in the past calendar year”, highlighting the loss to Scotland during the Six Nations and this month’s dramatic defeat by Australia; a game Cole called “an anomaly”.
Borthwick, it was revealed, hinted in the changing rooms on Saturday that his own team had perhaps been “hiding behind” their perceived inexperience. Cole, though, remains adamant that Borthwick, who previously coached him and Youngs at Leicester Tigers, remains the right man for England.
‘Yes, Steve is the right man for the job’
“We’re using it as an excuse that we’re inexperienced compared to others, but actually international rugby doesn’t care if you’ve got one cap, 100 caps, 500 caps,” Cole said.
“You’re on a level playing field and you have to win games of rugby and convert chances. But yes, there is a frustration. I think, having read some of the papers flicking through my phone online the past couple of days, there’s a frustration around Steve that after the game he had to answer the question, ‘Is he the right man for the job?’ Yes, he’s the f—— man for the job.”
