England’s 2023/24 season finally came to a close this past weekend, as they played their final match of a 13-month long campaign at Eden Park. Steve Borthwick’s men wrapped up their arduous season with a Summer Tour of Japan and New Zealand, and despite recording a solid victory over Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms, England were unsuccessful in back-to-back defeats against the All Blacks.
England head coach Steve Borthwick has reflected upon the past season, and broke the campaign down into two phases. The former lock labelled the first phase to run up until the end of the Rugby World Cup, which saw England return from France with Bronze medals. The second phase was the period from the 2024 Six Nations to the end of the Summer Tour, as Borthwick re-built the squad with an assortment of new players making their debuts.
There was a mass exodus of England talents after the Rugby World Cup, as nine players have since signed overseas contracts, and an additional three retired from the Test match stage. This equals out to 36% of England’s 33-man Rugby World Cup squad, and Borthwick was tasked to start a fresh, as his side entered a new era ahead of the 2024 Six Nations.
The players who retired from Test match rugby are: Courtney Lawes, Ben Youngs and Danny Care.
The players who left the England squad after signing overseas contracts are: Kyle Sinckler (Toulon), David Ribbans (Toulon), Jack Willis (Toulouse), Lewis Ludlam (Toulon), Billy Vunipola (Montpellier), Owen Farrell (Racing 92), Joe Marchant (Stade Francais) & Henry Arundell (Racing 92).
“I think we have had two definitive phases: one the World Cup phase which was getting the team fit and understanding of how we wanted to play in a very quick sense. Bringing in a new coaching team together at that point in time and with an experienced group of players. I think by the end of the World Cup, we were over 1200 caps in the matchday 23.
“We had an experienced group who had played a lot of Test matches together but with a new coaching group and I had to bring them back together because they had not been in that international environment for a while.
“We fell a bit short. We wanted to win the World Cup and we fell a bit short of that. Then the second phase started and that second phase is building a new team that’s involved a number of new caps. So far in these eight Tests (in 2024) we have had eight new caps. We have gone from having 1200 caps in a match day squad in the World Cup to yesterday having 675 I think it was in the match day 23.”
Borthwick has certainly put youthful exuberance at the forefront of his plans, as he introduced 13 players to their first experience of facing the All Blacks this past fortnight. The young cohort of call-ups following the Rugby World Cup have included an assortment of all-action attackers, with the likes of Exeter’s Manny Feyi-Waboso and the Northampton duo of Ollie Sleightholme and Tommy Freeman, all made their names known across New Zealand and Japan.
Borthwick picked out the trio of back-three flyers amongst those new faces who have impressed him upon the Summer tour, with Sleightholme stepping up for his debut this past month. The head coach did not focus entirely upon his wings, as he also name-checked Fin Baxter, as the 22-year-old loose-head prop stepped up to the occasion for a Test debut in Dunedin against the All Blacks.
“There’s not as much experience there and there’s a different blend of team in terms of the personnel what we have got now is a lot of exciting young talent, especially in the backline who I think want to be positive and aggressive with the ball.” Borthwick continued. “They are very skilled and we have got pace with Manny Feyi-Waboso and Tommy Freeman, Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace. They do not have many caps between them and they are very young, but they have got real pace.
“In the sense, the England pack has changed from what was traditionally a very big powerful pack to more of a younger, dynamic pack. We have got to bring some players through there. You have seen the emergence of Fin Baxter.
“We have seen the emergence in the last year of Ben Earl and we have seen George Martin and Ollie Chessum really progress as international players, Chandler Cunningham-South coming in, Theo Dan’s emergence. You can see that younger pack developing. Clearly we have got to develop at tight-head. As we look forward, that’s one area we have got to look at. You saw yesterday that the scrum was under pressure so that’s an area we have to improve.”
As Borthwick highlighted, England’s future scrum is rather lop-sided in favour of the loose-head. Even without Ellis Genge and Beno Obano available for the Summer tour, England had an abundance of the Premiership’s top loose-heads for selection, as Joe Marler, Fin Baxter and Bevan Rodd packed down on the left side of the front row. Borthwick would later call upon Northampton Saints loose-head Immanuel Iyogun, to fill the wider squad ranks following the injury to Marler.
However, one area where England are not blessed in depth is at tight-head prop, with Dan Cole continuing to wind down his international career after his 115th test cap. The Leicester veteran became the second most-capped England men’s player of all time on the tour, as he overlapped Jason Leonard, with just his podcast co-host and long time Tigers teammate Ben Youngs ahead of him for England longevity.
Cole would alternate the tight-head spot with Bath prop Will Stuart, with England’s options for the number three jersey wearing rather thin. The next available option would likely be an up and coming Premiership prop, as the likes of Gloucester’s Afolabi Fasgbon and Bath’s Billy Sela continue to tear up trees in the England U20 ranks. Borthwick recognises how his tight-head ranks are quite slim pickings, and has been in conversation with scrum coach Tom Harrison about this.
“How I coach the team is a constant evolution. How I coach this pack now to how I coached at the World Cup, and before that, has changed. These players look at rugby and their preparation in a slightly different sense. I’m constantly having to hold them back. They desperately want to train hard and run hard.
“That’s what you get with a young enthusiastic group. Each experience feels like it’s a new experience for them. Like coming to New Zealand. How many of them have been to New Zealand before? Not many. It’s a unique place to come and tour. So there’s a few things, the skill of coaching is constantly understanding what the players need.
“I’ll have a conversation with Coley (Dan Cole) in due course and see what he wants to do. But quite clearly we need to find some more tight-heads. If you look at the loose-head side and the people who weren’t here…Ellis Genge, Ben Obano, Joe Marler missed the last Test, Fin Baxter, Bevan Rodd, we’ve got competition. We won’t quite have that on the other side of the scrum. That’s going to be a big development project for myself and Tom Harrison.”
Despite the thin pecking order for tight-head when compared to the loose-head of the scrum, Borthwick was full of praise for his regular starting number three. Will Stuart led from the off in both Tests against New Zealand and has steadily established himself as Borthwick’s resident tight-head throughout recent months.
“Will Stuart has done really well in the last couple of Test matches. The New Zealand scrum is very good and outside the scrum I thought he did many things very well. Part of my next step is to do that kind of planning and decide on the right thing to do.
“What’s pretty clear to see is that I’m trying to have consistency in selection and build the number of caps, not just individually but together, so we maximise the cohesion. That’s clearly with a longer term goal in mind but we need results now as well. That’s always a challenge the England head coach has. We need results now and we need to be preparing for several years in advance.”