Steve Borthwick: We need to build a fortress
Steve Borthwick has urged his England to pick up the winning habit and turn Twickenham into a fortress once again.
Virtually all of the 82,000 tickets have been sold for the autumn opener against New Zealand on November 2 and Borthwick wants fans to get some bang for their bucks.
England will arrive at HQ on the back of two narrow defeats in New Zealand tacked onto an agonising defeat to France at the end of the Six Nations and Borthwick wants to shed the plucky loser’s tag.
Defeats for England at Twickenham in their World Cup-winning era were as rare as a Martin Johnson drop-goal back in the day.
And Borthwick has rallied his side to start getting over the line in nip and tuck games and turn their corner of south-west London into home sweet home once again.
Home Sweet Home
“Of our last 15 games we’ve had two at Twickenham,” said the head coach.
“Seven of our next nine are at Allianz Stadium. And we want to make sure this is a place that our players enjoy playing, that our fans enjoy coming, because they’re seeing an England team performing and an England team winning.
“I praise players for all their efforts, because they’ve done a lot of good things, but there’s been also times where we have lost games as opposed to the opposition winning them.
“You can accept inexperience, but you have got to learn the lessons fast.
“We were in a winning position in Dunedin, and we didn’t win, and then we got ourselves into a winning position in Auckland, and we should have learned the lessons from the week before, and converted that, and we didn’t in the final quarter.
“I am clear that the team needs to consistently put itself in position to win games, which I think we’ve done a lot better.
“There was a period, not so long ago, where we weren’t competing against the top four, now we’re competing, but I want to make sure we get the job finished at the end.”
England’s second tier of players will finally get some international action with the reintroduction of proper A team games this season.
They play Australia A at The Stoop on November 17 and an Ireland outfit at Ashton Gate on February 23.
They will be used as a path between Premiership and Test level for up-and-coming youngsters like Gloucester’s Afo Fasogbon and Sale Sharks’ Asher Opoku-Fordjour who are knocking on the door of senior recognition.
Borthwick: We need to build a fortress
Borthwick was in the Ashton Gate stands when prop Fasogbon gave Ellis Genge a much-publicised send-off in his side’s 44-41 league win recently.
And Borthwick revealed he has already sat down with Fasogbon, at the start of the season, to help map out his campaign alongside his club boss, George Skivington.
“Somebody like George Skivington has been superb,” added Borthwick.
“From early on back in August, we arranged a meeting so that we could go in and Afo was sat there with myself, with George, and with Tom Harrison, to have a conversation about Afo and what we’re seeing, and what we think the next steps are with him.
“That kind of relationship perhaps wouldn’t necessarily have happened in the past, but George has been excellent there.
“Clearly the clubs pick their players. I have no input into that but I do speak to club head coaches about what they’re thinking selection-wise.
Playing is Key
“But one thing I’m very clear on is that the best development for the players is to play.
“They need to play. So, the more we can get these young players playing, the more we can get A games to help bridge the gap from Premiership to Test level, it’s only going to help strengthen our rugby system going forward.
“I would certainly see the likes of Afo, the likes of Asher, being potential England players in the near future.”
Borthwick and his squad head to Girona tomorrow with the head coach mulling over his choice of scrum-half with Alex Mitchell injured.
Jack van Poortvliet, Ben Spencer and Harry Randall are currently in the mix and Borthwick hinted it could be horses for courses selection over the course of the four autumn Tests.
“It becomes what we need tactically at the start of the game, what we want at the end of the game and people getting the job finished,” he said. “Those things become part of the selection process.”
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