Borthwick’s men face South Africa this weekend looking to bounce back from defeats against New Zealand and Australia.
England’s head coach, Steve Borthwick, is concerned that rugby will resemble Australian rules football as a result of the hasty implementation of a legal directive aimed at creating fairer aerial duels.
Borthwick has made four changes for Saturday’s encounter against South Africa: full-back Freddie Steward, wing Ollie Sleightholme, scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet, and flanker Sam Underhill will start.
The recall of high ball maestro Steward, which was correctly anticipated by Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus hours before Borthwick named his selection, is a tribute to the influence on the game created by World Rugby’s autumn crackdown on ‘escort runners’, who block the route of kick-chasers.
Instead of fostering a more open and contestable game, England believes the directive exemplifies the law of unintended consequences. Borthwick believes it should have been implemented with more care.
“You don’t want to turn rugby union into Australian rules. I believed our game was in quite excellent shape. “There has been a fundamental change here,” Borthwick stated.
“We’re witnessing a significant rise in the frequency of kicks, contestable kicks, scrums, and loose balls, despite the relatively small sample size thus far. That is just going to increase.
“In retrospect, it could’ve been handled differently. We really received the information about it a week before we arrived at camp.
You do not want to turn rugby union into Australian rules. I believed our game was in quite excellent shape. There has been a fundamental shift here.
Steve Borthwick
“At that point in time, no players had played with it and we’re now putting it on to high level Tests that are effectively the biggest stage of world rugby other than the World Cup.”I’ll be really eager to watch where this goes because I can only see it leading to more kicking and scrums.
“Yes, there will be more unstructured possession, but I don’t think everyone wants to see more kicking and scrums. I don’t think anyone wants it to become like Australian rules.”
Erasmus believes Steward will be “devastating” because the directive has put a premium on his aerial expertise, and while Borthwick was more restrained in his remarks, he agrees that the 6ft 5in Leicester full-back will now shine.
Steward fell below George Furbank in the pecking order midway through this year’s Six Nations, but after appearing in only three of England’s ten Tests in 2024, he is finally taking centre stage at Allianz Stadium.
“That contestable kicking game means that anyone who has strengths in that area is going to be very important in this game,” says Borthwick.
Furbank, scrum-half Ben Spencer started the last-gasp losses to New Zealand and Australia that have made Saturday’s game into a must-win, but both have been removed from the squad outright in favor of Steward and Van Poortvliet.
Van Poortvliet was England’s favorite scrum-half heading into the World Cup, but he injured his ankle in a warm-up match against Wales at Twickenham and has been neglected by Borthwick since.
The two additional alterations to the starting XV are necessary after Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso were ruled out against South Africa due to concussions suffered against the Wallabies.
They are set to return for the autumn’s culmination versus Japan on November 24.
Underhill is chosen as an openside flanker after overcoming an ankle injury that had hampered his season’s start, while Sleightholme, who scored two tries against Australia, makes his first start on the left wing.
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