England’s senior players have circled the wagons around Steve Borthwick and denied he oversaw a toxic environment over the summer, insisting they will “fight to protect” the under-fire head coach in Sunday’s autumn opener against Australia.
Jamie George, who captained the side for England’s three summer Tests, and the returning captain, Maro Itoje, called a squad meeting on Friday morning to discuss an article in the Times that portrays a group of players fed up with Borthwick’s man management skills. The article said that Ellis Genge clashed with Borthwick, that senior players sought clear-the-air talks and wanted the Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney – who this week gave his unequivocal backing for the head coach to continue through to next year’s World Cup – present.
Borthwick said he doesn’t “recognise it as an accurate reflection” but chose not to engage with the accusations further, claiming “there’s nothing I need to respond to in there”, leaving his senior players to spring to his defence and insist he has not lost the faith of the squad. George conceded that the leadership group did have a virtual meeting with Borthwick in the aftermath of the summer tour to address ways to improve the environment but disputed suggestions it had become toxic. George also believes the fallout will boost England as they return to Twickenham on the back of five defeats in their past seven matches.
“It’s galvanising, 100%” said George. “We are incredibly tight already. But when someone comes at one of our own, we are going to fight to protect them. That is genuinely across the board. We have meetings weekly with [assistant coach] Kevin Sinfield, and a lot of time Kev’s messaging comes back to looking after people and standing up for teammates and people we respect. That is what I think will happen now.
“The mood in camp on the whole was good. There are always – in life, in rugby, in professional sport – there are always going to be disagreements. There are always going to be heated moments. But ultimately we all knew that everyone has the best interests of the team at heart. It wasn’t a straightforward journey for us in the summer, that’s for sure. But equally, to be said that there was a toxic environment and a negative environment, that’s just not true, hand on heart. I hope you know that I have never stood up and lied to you. There is no way that is true and I was captain of the tour. I can say as a matter of fact that is not the case and therefore leading into the weekend, we cannot wait to represent Steve in the most positive way because we’re going to show how much we care about him. He’s been hurt.”
Among the accusations are that Borthwick has demonstrated a lack of empathy when players or members of staff have endured personal problems. It is also remarked how badly Borthwick handled the decision to strip George of the captaincy on the eve of the 2025 Six Nations. But George added: “I don’t relate to it in any way, shape or form. I think there’s a lot of it that’s untrue. I am just incredibly upset by it. I don’t like the narrative it has created and the response from the group has been a rallying one because we all feel the same way.
“We had a meeting this morning and two days out from a Test match we are having to have a meeting about an article that’s been written about our head coach. I think that’s just crazy, but we had to do it. We had to address it. The overriding thing that came out of it was that Steve has every bit of our backing and we need to make sure that we keep looking after each other like we have done for a very long time.”
Against that backdrop, Borthwick has made four changes to the side that ended the summer with victory over Argentina, with Itoje returning, Ben Curry selected at openside flanker, Fin Baxter getting the nod at loosehead prop and George Furbank picked to start his first Test in two years at full-back. Itoje was rested for the summer tour but said: “I can wholeheartedly say Steve has not lost the faith of us players. We back him 100%, alongside all the other coaches. I told him and the team are 100% behind him. In my limited experience of high performance environments, I haven’t been in one where there isn’t competitive tension or there isn’t holding people to account or high standards.”
Ben Curry’s selection comes after his twin brother, Tom, was ruled out after pulling up in training with a hip problem. Borthwick could not say whether Tom will appear for England in the Nations Championship after fears the 28-year-old may face a lengthy layoff. He was sidelined for eight months after the 2023 World Cup and told he may have to retire due to a complicated hip problem. “He’s had a scan on the hip and we’re currently just getting everything assessed to understand the full picture,” said Borthwick. “So, he’s unavailable for this week, we don’t know beyond that at this stage.”
