Steve Borthwick might have learned his trade as a coach under Eddie Jones, but the new England boss on Monday said that he has no intention of emulating his predecessor’s mind games, insisting he would remain “authentic.”
Jones, now in charge of his native Australia for a second time after being sacked by England, has long been renowned for throwing “verbal hand grenades” during the buildup to matches in a bid to unsettle his opponents.
Borthwick served as an assistant to Jones when the veteran was in charge of Japan and England.
Photo: AFP
“My strategy is to be very up front. What I’m going to do is be me and be authentic to me,” Borthwick told reporters. “What’s that? I care deeply about my players. I want them to go out on to the field and play for England and be the best version of themselves.”
The 43-year-old former lock, whose international career spanned from 2001 to 2010, added: “As a player I was privileged to play 57 times for England.”
“I had the great honor of captaining my country on 21 occasions. Now I look back at a lot of that time and I regret a lot of the things I didn’t do,” he said. “Did I ever give the very, very best account of myself? I always put the effort in, but did I ever feel I put all my strengths on the pitch? Did I ever feel I gave the absolute best of myself? Would I like to rewind the clock and go back, and try and do it again? Yeah, I would. I can’t, unfortunately, because I’m old and can’t do it, as Owen [Farrell] keeps reminding me.”
Borthwick left Jones’ England setup to take charge of Leicester, whom he guided to the Premiership title last season, but he found himself succeeding Jones when England decided to fire the 62-year-old just nine months out from this year’s Rugby World Cup in France, following a woeful season when England lost six out of 12 Tests.
Borthwick said a huge motivation was to help the squad avoid the errors of his own playing career.
“I want to help these young guys not make the mistakes I made. When they’re old and have no hair like me, I want them to not have regrets. I don’t want them looking back thinking: ‘I wish I’d done that or I could have done that,’” he said.
Borthwick takes over with England at a low ebb following an Autumn Nations Series where they won just one of four matches.
England have also lost six of their past 10 matches in the Six Nations heading into this season’s opener at home to Scotland on Feb. 4.
“What I want the players to do is bring their great strengths on to the field in an England shirt because they’re incredibly talented,” he said. “They’re good enough, but whether we win or lose, I want us to be better the next week. I’m going to be authentic and not play mind games. I’ll leave that to other coaches.”
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