No guarantee over Borthwick future as RFU review continues

Borthwick (left) has come under pressure a little less than a year after Sweeney (right) survived a grassroots rebellion aimed at ousting him from his role

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There are no guarantees on the future of England coach Steve Borthwick until a review into this year's dismal Six Nations campaign reports back at the end of April, says Rugby Football Union boss Bill Sweeney.

England lost four of their five games, their worst performance since the tournament was expanded in 2000.

While a post-Six Nations review is standard practice regardless of how England perform, Sweeney admitted results this year required a "deeper dive" into an "unusual outcome".

"Clearly, there are some issues and we're getting to them already to see what needs addressing," said chief executive Sweeney when asked whether Borthwick would definitely be in place for England's matches against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July.

"I see the outcome of that being for us to make sure we've got the right support mechanisms in place to address them and support Steve to get that right going forward.

"We're in the middle of the review, so it wouldn't be appropriate to start talking about that [specific issues] right now, but we'll get to the bottom of all of the them."

Sweeney said that his verdict on Borthwick would not be swayed by the prospect of the next Rugby World Cup, which is 18 months away.

Borthwick took on the job with less than a year to prepare for the previous tournament after the RFU finally lost faith with his predecessor Eddie Jones in December 2022.

"I'm not thinking about deadlines and all of that," said Sweeney.

"We just really focused on getting to the bottom of what we need to solve."

While Sweeney said that succession planning for the head coach role continued as normal, just as it did for his own role and that of other executives, he would not be drawn on specifics.

Andy Farrell, who has led Ireland to two Six Nations titles and the British and Irish Lions to a series win in Australia since being sacked as England defence coach in the wake of their 2015 Rugby World Cup pool-stage exit, has been linked with a possible return to Twickenham, with Prem side Saracens are also rumoured to be interested in securing his services.

"He's under contract to 2027 and the Rugby World Cup," said Sweeney of Farrell.

"We are not in a dialogue. We are not in a discussion with him at present."

Farrell and Borthwick (second from right and far right) worked together on Warren Gatland's staff on the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour

In contrast to his stance on Borthwick, Sweeney was unequivocal in his backing of the talent at the head coach's disposal, saying the RFU had "absolute confidence" in the players.

"We still think this is an extremely strong squad, and we still think that it's got the potential and capabilities to do some special things," he said.

The review into is carried out by an anonymous panel of figures from inside and outside rugby and involves interviews with players and coaches.

Jones has previously described it as "a tough, tough process", saying that RFU director of performance rugby Conor O'Shea, former British and Irish Lions coach Ian McGeechan and "a couple of [RFU] board members" assessed his performance and set-up while in charge of England.

Sweeney said the anonymity of the current panel was key to ensuring they could deliver their judgement as frankly as possible.

"There's a lot of noise, and some of it you hear, and you just know it's inaccurate from the facts, and some of it you hear, and you say, 'Yeah, OK, that's one of the topics that we're discussing in the review'," Sweeney said.

"But you've got to take emotion out of the equation totally and just look at it purely in terms of, what was the performance, what were the issues, why did they arise, and how do we fix it?"

He also believes that conversations around Borthwick's qualities as a coach are swayed by results on the field, with the same characteristics which were seen as key to a 12-match year-long winning run, now cast in a different light by the dip which has followed immediately after.

"Steve's calm, he's considered, he's analytical, and that's his persona. That's his personality," said Sweeney.

"I can think of some of the coverage around him prior to the Six Nations being extremely positive about that side of his nature, so it gets coloured a lot by what actually happens on the results page."

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