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Wallaby shirt-wearing son reminded Borthwick of 'power rugby has'
By Liam Heagney
Steve Borthwick has revealed how a welcome home last week from his Wallaby jersey-wearing son reminded the new England boss about the power he believes the sport of rugby has to inspire. The 43-year-old had finished up work at the Leicester training ground ahead of his final match in charge of the Tigers when he initially thought he was about to get a special hug from one of his two sons when he arrived in the door last week.
However, instead of embracing, his nine-year-old raced by his father and dived into the far corner of the living room to score a try, all the while wearing an Australia jersey given to him by his mother.
It was a humorous behind-the-scenes moment that Borthwick volunteered for public consumption following his unveiling as the new England boss on Monday on a five-year deal that will expire following the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
“I got home a couple of days ago, I stepped in the door,” said Borthwick at his first media briefing after the RFU confirmed him as the successor to Eddie Jones. “I have got two boys and the nine-year-old is Hunter and Hunter is running towards me.
“He is carrying this ball in his hand and I’m thinking to myself it is one of those moments where as a father you go he is going to give me this great hug. It’s a kind of heart-warming moment. He ran straight past me and dived on the floor on the far side of the living room and scored the winning try.
“He said: ‘That is the winning try, daddy, I just scored the winning try’. Brilliant. Brilliant. So one problem is that I missed out on my hug. The second problem was he was wearing a Wallaby shirt, his mother is to blame for that. His mum is to blame for that. But what it reminds me is the power that rugby has, this incredible sport that we love, it has such power.
"Now what we want to do is make sure that this team is one that uses that power to get kids to fall in love with this game, to get the supporters roaring and keep them roaring. Now we have got a lot of work to do. I’m under no illusions. Everyone can see that.
"We have got a lot of work to do and that is not going to happen overnight. But we have got a great group of players. We have got experienced players, we have got young players that are emerging that have got such incredible talent and that is really exciting.”
Earlier at his unveiling, Borthwick had spoken about how he was inspired as a young boy watching England play before growing up and winning 57 Test caps between 2001 and 2010. “To be appointed to this role fills me with incredible pride and I’m honoured to take on this job. I know that pride will count for nothing if we don’t deliver.
“I want to shape a team that wins, I was a little boy who fell in love with rugby watching the England team play. I want to shape a team that this nation gets behind, inspires our supporters and inspires lots of young boys and girls to fall in love with rugby as I did all those years ago.”
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Yes I was surprised at how close the pen count was - the spread between best and worst being just 2. The number of yellow cards though will surely be something the Boks will look to address
Go to commentsBriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!
It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.
It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.
Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.
Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!
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