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'Best in the world': The Steve Borthwick verdict on Farrell's Ireland

Ireland's Bundee Aki races away from England's Ben Earl last August (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

England boss Steve Borthwick has labelled Andy Farrell’s Ireland as the best team in the world despite them not winning the recent Rugby World Cup.

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The Irish were eliminated in the quarter-finals in France, losing out to the All Blacks in a tournament where Borthwick’s English emerged from the weaker side of the draw to win the bronze medal final.

Three rounds into the 2024 Guinness Six Nations, Farrell’s side are leading the way at the top and on course to claim back-to-back Grand Slam titles for the first time.

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      In contrast, Borthwick’s England are licking their wounds following their surrender away to Scotland, a 21-30 loss putting an end to what had been their best start to the championship since 2019 thanks to wins over Italy and Wales.

      The Irish are now Twickenham-bound on Saturday as red-hot favourites to take another successful step towards their second successive clean sweep.

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      Borthwick has complimented them on their form, labelling them as the world’s best but added that England are still determined to pull off an upset result.

      “About Ireland, right now we would all agree they are the best team in the world,” he said on Thursday afternoon after confirming a starting XV that has three changes from Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

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      Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Alex Mitchell and George Martin have all been named to start on this occasion at the expense of the benched Elliot Daly and Danny Care, and the excluded Ethan Roots.

      “Might not have won the World Cup but right now, the way they have been playing, the way they have been playing through the first period of this championship, they are the best team in the world.

      “Their attack is probably the best in the world. Now it’s going against a defence that wants to put people under a lot of pressure, so we are going to be really tested there and I am really looking forward to seeing our defence under this test.

      “What we have been able to do is force teams to change the way they have been playing a little bit, we have forced teams to make a number of errors and then we started to have the ability to capitalise off the back of those turnovers that are created.

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      “Now quite clearly if you are playing against Ireland, if they are allowed to get into their rhythm then they are a very strong side. So we need to ensure they don’t get into that rhythm and then from there, maximise the opportunities and how quickly we take them.”

      Defending his 19-game record in charge of England since the start of the 2023 Six Nations, Borthwick added: “I have said over the last period about the team evolving. I said from having the foundations in place we need to keep evolving.

      “Part of that is evolving tactically, evolving technically, evolving physically, so evolving the squad composition and makeup of the players. You can see that is changing over this period.

      “But let’s be clear here, while we are respectful of those factors, we go into every game wanting to win. Our aim is to get the result that we want.”

      Skipper Jamie George backed up his coach at the media briefing, claiming: “I entirely agree. It could be very easy for an excuse to be made that we are in transition or whatever you might want to call it.

      “We’re here to win this, we’re here to take on the best team in the world at Twickenham and there are going to be no excuses going into this game and we are very excited about that.”

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      Comments

      28 Comments
      c
      craig 505 days ago

      If Hansen or Erasmus said this I would listen. But coming from somebody like Borthwick, it means nothing. What exactly has Borthwick won? Nothing. His opinion means nothing

      R
      Rugby 503 days ago

      Rassie would not say that. He hates entitlement.

      Shag would say that and he would add oh it such a burden being the Champs.


      BTW Borthwick was smart, it is a coach trick. It happens a lot. Coaches come out early week and say they are underdogs. It is a good trick, a bit sly and it leaves no come back from opposing coach. Eddie Jones does it all the time. The bokke even though they are good they always prefer underdog status.


      Borthwick by saying “Ireland the best team in the world”

      1. It takes the heat off his players immediately

      2. It puts the heat squarely on the opposition players.

      3. they media lap it up

      4. fans lap it up

      5. if England lose they have an excuse

      6, Ireland train easy as they have already won?

      7. etc etc


      Sports Psychology 101

      C
      CR 506 days ago

      We shall see when they come to Loftus 😉

      P
      Paul 506 days ago

      I believe England should use a selection panel made up of ex-players and take selection out of the coach’s hands.  Let the coach, coach.  It would limit how much damage a head coach can do.  It would also mitigate the tendency of a coach to have favourites.  If a selection panel was used for this game, Earl would not be playing eight, Chessum would not be playing at six and Care would not be ahead of Spencer.  Also, Mercer would be involved.


      And previously, if a selection panel had been used, Don Armand, Dave Ewers, Alex Goode, Dan Robson, Nick Tompkins and Danny Cipriani would not have been overlooked.

      J
      JD 506 days ago

      Mind games. So obvious that it’s not worth wasting the breath to say it. Won’t work; no way England beats Ireland this year.

      B
      Blanco 506 days ago

      England need to rattle Ireland into having a bad day. I don’t think they will get close to doing that. France’s attempt at slowing our rucks fizzled out immediately. Unless England find a way they won’t get in our faces enough. It will be a proper test though.

      B
      Bull Shark 506 days ago

      England can beat Ireland this year. I wouldn’t write-off the idea entirely. They have a pack, and a team that can disrupt anyone’s flow on the day. Ireland had a few suspect looking moments against a young welsh team. A determined English outfit could get under their skin and, with their new rush defence system (if they can get it to fire), could cause an upset. Felix jones will have taken a few notes from the Bok game against Ireland.


      Unlikely, yes, but not impossible.

      P
      PR 506 days ago

      I know the whole ‘best in the world’ thing is Borthwick trying to put pressure on Ireland and take pressure off England, but it’s such a weird statement. Is Ireland the best active international team at the moment? Probably. But how do you judge the wider pecking order when the Boks and All Blacks have not played since October last year? Also in terms of quality, this has been one of the worst Six Nations for a while with France, England and Wales all really poor. You can say that Ireland have been the best of a bad bunch (although Scotland might still have a say), but ‘best in the world’ seems very premature. Brilliant motivation for the Boks, mind.

      R
      Rugby 503 days ago

      Well the ranking system is a fair way to judge pecking order.


      #TeamPoints

      1 South Africa 94.54 Plus RWC Champs

      2 Ireland 90.69(-1.42)

      3 New Zealand 89.80

      4 France87.31(+0.92)

      5 England 86.35(+1.42)

      6 Scotland 82.82(-1.47)

      7 Argentina 80.68

      8 Wales 78.62(-0.92)

      9(↑10 Italy 78.05(+1.47)

      10(↓9) Australia 77.48

      B
      Blanco 506 days ago

      SA have to be rated the best as RWC winners until Ireland or New Zealand can comprehensively prove otherwise. Ireland’s best game was the first against France and that was a victory SA (and NZ) could manage. One change from the RWC is that the Ireland team seem a little colder, less likely to get upset by a bad play. It means England will find it difficult to get under their skin. England absolutely must score the first try.

      I think England’s defensive system training over the first 3 matches will take a back seat now to more rounded training to really attack these two games against Ireland and France. I expect this to be the highest quality game to date. Infact I expect three good games. Italy are finally looking a bit gnarly.

      B
      Bull Shark 506 days ago

      My thoughts exactly. A surging Ireland without any real competition in this years 6N - obviously they’re the best right now.


      But I sense England could pull off a win against them. Wouldn’t that make for an interesting story.

      Not likely. But not impossible either.

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      J
      JW 1 hour ago
      Leicester Fainga'anuku denied All Blacks eligibility for TRC

      I don’t get that. I got the opposite, this was something Lester really really wanted to do. NZR is not going to stop him doing that by putting ridiculous money in front of him (noted you were only asking for fair money).


      I wouldn’t say this was a Mo’unga or Frizell situation where there talent only was unlocked after they signed abroad, when Schmidt and Ryan came in respectively. LF was on a good trajectory, and he just decided he has the perfect window of opportunity to go abroad while he’s not first choice, learn and live in France to come back better and have a good shot at the perfect age. I think he recongised that.


      Agreed that our rotation has been off the the last decade, players have not been moved on when they should, but I wouldn’t include Rieko in that discussion, though I would accept he is more of a marketing than performance signing.


      Also agree it is a strange condunrum that results from the misalligned seasons, where Lester is straight into NPC in the same season almost. When really the ‘start’ of his contract is next year. Is he even going to be on the payroll at the moment? Could it be used as a double dip to encourage players back, a ‘bonus international season’ of match fees.


      But they also don’t want them to become anymore common. So perhaps everything is fine? Like I was alluding to with Toko, they would need multiple markers of their own in Top 14 for them to be able to gauge off. As I’ve said in previous articles I’d be comfortable to expand sabbaticals to 2 in every position (yes a huge change), so that the was a core group of 30 of the top players all aligned with the ABs and overseas at any one time. This would ensure there are good markers to correlate levels of performance amongst everyone. This is a very similar setup/size to South Africa. It is like the AB modem in a wider organism, the vets are shipped off much earlier, and the core of next cycle is brought through. No missing out on the JGPs or Aki’s, no the Antonio’s or young Patrick Tuifua’s to france, keeping the Chandler Cunningham-South’s or Roots brothers, evan this Dubious guy from the French team was playing rugby here in NZ and could have stayed with a more ground up focus on bringing players through, not paying them much etc lol

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