England report card: 2024 has been a C- for Steve Borthwick

Most onlookers are straining their eyes to see meaningful progress from England. With a sobering record of five wins and seven losses in 2024 for Steve Borthwick’s team, it is easy to understand the pessimism.

Borthwick has now overseen 28 Tests as head coach. His success rate sits at exactly 50 per cent, with the stirring victory over Ireland eight months ago looking increasingly like an anomaly because, other than that, England’s list of scalps in the Borthwick era is distinctly underwhelming.

They have beaten Wales and Japan three times each and both Argentina and Italy twice. Solitary triumphs have come against Ireland, Fiji, Samoa and Chile. It is hardly a roll of honour, and England’s world ranking of seventh feels completely appropriate.

In January, they were fifth on that ladder thanks to a dogged World Cup campaign that yielded extra ranking points. But hopes of understated consolidation always seemed optimistic in this tricky sophomore year. Caveats have grown painfully dull, yet context is important.

Squad renewal and realism

Although England could hardly have hoped for a more sympathetic start to the 2024 Six Nations, as they visited Italy before hosting Wales, their fixture list grew daunting rather quickly.

This sequence would complete the year: Scotland, Ireland, France, Japan, New Zealand, New Zealand, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Japan. There were justifiable fears that positive results would be scarce. From that run of 10, four or five further wins was a realistic target during a rebuild.

Such worries were not allayed when England scraped a 16-14 victory over Wales team who – as it turned out – were embarking on a historically bad run. It must be stressed that Borthwick was dealing with a particularly tricky scenario. While his tenure has lasted two years so far, it can be split into at least three phases.

Early 2024 dealt him an exodus of players and he needed to refresh his group accordingly. Twelve of Borthwick’s initial 33-man squad for the World Cup were not available for the subsequent Six Nations, either due to voluntary withdrawal from international duty or because they had moved to a Top 14 club. That represents significant upheaval.

In response, Borthwick introduced nine debutants this year in Ethan Roots, Fraser Dingwall, Chandler Cunningham-South, Fin Smith, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Fin Baxter, Ollie Sleightholme and Asher Opoku-Fordjour. Though Roots was probably a quick-fix stop-gap at blindside flanker, the rest have serious potential. England A matches could be a vehicle to fast-tracking others, such as Afolabi Fasogbon.

Opoku-Fordjour positively bounced over to his first scrum against Japan, grinning in anticipation as team-mates geed him up:

The 20-year-old prop has emerged at an opportune time for England, notwithstanding a decent autumn for Will Stuart. Elsewhere among the crop of rookies, Cunningham-South and Feyi-Waboso have been particularly prominent. Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Ollie Lawrence and George Martin were already capped, but have enjoyed breakthrough years as consistent Test starters.

When one factors in a new midfield and a new captain, England have altered their 2023 line-up quite drastically. We could argue that others should have been allowed to enliven the side, but Borthwick has effected change.

“Transition” was a theme repeated in his programme notes on Sunday. England’s head coach did not deny the frustrations of the autumn, yet obviously wanted to remind us that growing pains have been inevitable.

Defensive regression

A pared-down kick-pressure approach got England to within a scrum penalty of the World Cup final. However, they were always going to have to expand their horizons in 2024.

Defensively, they made one step forward before taking two backwards over the autumn. They conceded just 40 points across two Tests out in New Zealand, then suffered damaging lapses in each of their four November matches.

The shock resignation of Felix Jones, who had implemented an aggressive blitz system, leaning upon his time with the Spingboks, has had an impact. Since the arrival of Joe El-Abd, there looks to be less mutual trust between players. Conviction and clarity are lacking.

Take the try that Naoto Saito scored for Japan on Sunday. Henry Slade’s press is bypassed and Sleightholme appears horribly stranded. Really, though, the damage is done on the first two phases after the kick chase.

England’s spacing closer to the breakdown is sloppy. They have several defenders marking nobody on the short side. Because of that, the defensive line becomes narrower than it needs to be. Japan capitalise clinically:

There are striking similarities with Italy’s second try in Rome nine months ago. Following an Alex Mitchell clearance, England become too tight to the ruck, compromising their ability to blitz further out. Italy pick them off and Tommaso Allan finishes:

Personnel plays a part and, again, it pays to be patient. Slade and Feyi-Waboso are familiar with the blitz as a collective because Exeter Chiefs employ it. Sleigtholme, used to a different system at Northampton Saints, will not be totally assured straightaway. Four opposition tries came down his wing this autumn. Interestingly, just before the summer tour, Borthwick declared himself excited about where Sleightholme’s defence could go.

The worry is that El-Abd, who will still be juggling the job with his responsibilities at Oyonnax until the end of the season, does not have the capacity to iron out these kinks. Felix Jones clearly did, helping Furbank and Freeman to acclimatise.

Whatever Jones’s reasons for wanting to follow Aled Walters out of the door, it is looking like a setback that has compromised England’s tactical identity.

Tying things together in attack

In attack against a callow Japan team, Sunday demonstrated how cohesion can lead to improvements. The exact same line-out strike that coughed up a vital try against Australia…

…led to Ben Earl’s score. Marcus Smith sent Ollie Lawrence through a hole in a second wave and Earl, the original decoy runner, followed up:

When allowed to launch off a line-out platform or from kick-return situations, England can be dangerous. Another clever set move against Japan saw Earl start in the receiver slot…

…before arcing all the way around into midfield.

Lawrence finds him behind the run of Freeman, who is at outside centre by this point. A second pull-back pass from Earl to Fin Smith, as stand-in full-back Marcus Smith cuts a short line, frees Tom Roebuck:

Essentially, England attacked against Japan as they had wanted to throughout the autumn, and were met with far less resistance. Their maul became a factor again, for instance. Translating this against tougher defences will not be easy, though Sleightholme is a pacey and predatory finisher. It will pay to move the ball to him in broken-field scenarios:

They were sharp from kick-return situations and line-outs against Ireland and France during last year’s Six Nations with George Ford at fly-half. Marcus Smith has inspired some dazzling tries as well, even if Borthwick has been intent on replacing him or shifting him to full-back for the last 20 minutes of matches.

Issues have arisen, however, when opponents have either spoiled the England set-piece or deprived them of counter-attacking opportunities. New Zealand did this shrewdly at Twickenham at the start of November, exposing England’s struggles to adapt to refereeing directives on escort running and box-kick blockers. This hinted at rigid thinking from the England camp.

Indeed, Borthwick dropped Furbank – a secondary playmaker – and reinstated Freddie Steward for the visit of South Africa. There have been suggestions that Elliot Daly would have started on the wing over Sleightholme as well, but for a hamstring injury.

Teams coached by Borthwick and Richard Wigglesworth are always more likely to exert pressure through kicking rather than overwhelming defences with extended periods of phase play. Eddie Jones implied as much on Sunday, admitting that his Japan side were suffocated.

England do not really possess the power or the synergy to hold onto the ball for too long. Earl and Lawrence, their keynote carriers, are not battering rams to be sent into heavy traffic. They must be used intelligently.

The absence of Mitchell makes England less potent because he services breakdowns so quickly. Ollie Chessum’s injuries have hurt the line-out platform as well. England’s 10-12-13 axis may be refined at some stage, but those two have definitely seen their stock rise despite not featuring in November.

Half empty or half full?

Subsiding to defeat from a strong position is an unwelcome habit that undermined England in five games – against France, against New Zealand on three separate occasions and against South Africa. They also held early leads against Scotland and Australia before fading, with the Wallabies loss also including a late slip-up for good measure.

On one hand, England have shown enough quality and executed plans well enough to be consistently competitive with elite opponents and even superior for good stretches. Margins have been excruciatingly fine. On the other hand, though, familiar faults have crippled them: scrum penalties, indisciplined defence, a failure to recover restarts and an inability to convert territorial pressure into points.

Quite remarkably, England did not score a point in the last quarter of four matches in 2024: all three losses to the All Blacks plus their defeat by the Springboks. They did pick up late points against Australia, but seemed out of puff as they conceded 17 in the second quarter.

Rassie Erasmus has playfully attributed England’s slumps to the energy expended by blitzing in defence. Borthwick also highlighted conditioning, which would have held more weight had he not moved on Tom Tombleson from that department before Aled Walters left for Ireland.

Bench management is another obvious area to examine. Some of Borthwick’s replacements have appeared predetermined and individuals entering the fray have rarely influenced England in a positive manner. One could point to a lack of depth here, too.

Borthwick has kept on the 37-year-old Dan Cole as a scrummaging steward. He rushed back Henry Slade to be a defensive leader and George Ford to be a safe pair of hands from the bench. George Martin came into the autumn with scant game-time because of his importance as a hefty lock. Tom Curry returned against Japan a fortnight after being knocked out.

The counterpoint is that Borthwick has had alternatives; Alex Lozowski and Luke Northmore at centre and Ted Hill, Tom Pearson or Tom Willis to cover the back five of the pack. Numbers 16-23 will be reviewed carefully prior to the Six Nations. Several stick-or-twist scenarios have arisen.

Verdict on England’s 2024: C-

England can be anything you want them to be at the moment. It would be equally fair to label them as a team that crack under pressure as it would to feel intrigued by their potential.

What is clear is that they are adrift of the world’s top sides and at a crossroads. The Six Nations, and especially a run of three consecutive home fixtures against France, Scotland and Italy, will be a stark gauge of their standing and whether they can act upon the painful lessons from 2024.

Convincing themselves will be crucial. Otherwise, they can only aim to tread water.