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Steve Borthwick responds to speculation over Kevin Sinfield's England future
By Josh Raisey
Amid speculation that Steve Borthwick's assistant coach Kevin Sinfield will step down from his England duties at the end of the World Cup, the head coach remained tight lipped when asked about the rumours this week.
England head into their final match of the World Cup this Friday against Argentina in the bronze final- a repeat of their opening match of the tournament. Reports emerged after the semi-final loss to South Africa that the rugby league legend will be leaving Borthwick's coaching staff after the World Cup with the imminent arrival of South Africa assistant coach Felix Jones.
When quizzed about Sinfield's future after England's captain's run at the Stade de France on Thursday, Borthwick said that he has learnt in his time in charge of England that it is "unwise" to comment on all rumours that circulate.
"I’ve been in this job nine, 10 months," the former Leicester Tigers head coach said. "One thing I’ve learnt very quickly it’s impossible and unwise to comment on every rumour and piece of speculation that is thrown out. I make no comment."
Sinfield joined England as defence coach alongside Borthwick at the end of 2022 following the departure of Eddie Jones. Though it took a while to see results, Sinfield's work with England has bore fruit this World Cup.
England have conceded the joint-fewest tries of any team at the World Cup, with seven, despite going deep into the tournament. On top of that, they completed 86% of the tackles against South Africa last weekend, their highest success-rate so far this World Cup, which shows the progress they have made throughout the tournament.
Having lost to England 27-10 on the opening weekend of the tournament, lock Maro Itoje is all too aware that the Pumas will be seeking revenge on Friday in Paris.
"We are competing for third place at this World Cup, so there's loads to be motivated about," the Saracen said.
"I guess, from their point of view, we beat them earlier they'll probably want to turn that around.
"It's going to be a great contest. Two teams coming off the back of a loss wanting to get it right."
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Yeah it what respects? I wasn’t impressed with his start the the season either, but at least on his return he used his running game a couple of times, so some of his negative aspects balanced out, were at the start it was pretty much all wrong moves no right moves.
Go to commentsGP Ennor debuted for the ABs several years ago and has never really impressed. The same for Crusaders, has been fine without really standing out. Hes somewhat injury prone which is a real shame as he had a lot of potential but sadly has never kicked on.
Havili is a very good super player but we’ve seen more than enough of him at test level to see that he’ll never be special at that level.
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