Eddie Jones believes England’s dramatic collapse in the Six Nations can be explained by Steve Borthwick’s overconfidence in looking ahead to a title decider against France before the tournament had begun.
Successive emphatic defeats to Scotland and Ireland have undone the progress made during a 12-Test winning run and turned the round-four appointment against Italy in Rome on 7 March into a game they dare not lose.
It is a very different scenario to the one Borthwick had envisioned when naming his Six Nations squad last month. “On 14 March in Paris, we want to be in a position entering that game where we can achieve what we’re all aiming to achieve,” the head coach said on 23 January.
“We want England fans flooding across the Channel to Paris to watch the team in a massive encounter in the final round with the opportunity to achieve what we want.”
Jones, Borthwick’s predecessor as England head coach, who was in charge from 2016 to 2022, questions whether the Rugby Football Union might have had an influence on the remarks.
“I’ll go back to the start of the Six Nations. I thought Steve made some very uncharacteristic comments about a title-decider against France, looking ahead,” Jones told the Rugby Unity podcast. “Steve is the most pragmatic and intelligent coach you could meet, but to look ahead for any team is fraught with danger. We all know that.
“But sometimes the pressure comes so that the union, the RFU, wants to hear more. They want to entice the fans because they’re all hungry for money so they want fans support. So be bold, come out – someone has told him to do that.
“The players read everything, the wives read everything, the girlfriends read everything, the boyfriends read everything, they all read it. They hear that and they talk to them and they say: ‘We’ve got to get our tickets for France. Where are we staying? Where are we going to go the night before for dinner?’
“All of that happens and the slight psychological change you get in the team because of that, they start to look ahead.”
Jones insists that the 31-20 mauling at Murrayfield, in which England conceded an early 17-0 deficit, left a mental scar that was carried into the five-try rout by Ireland.
“They got caught on the hop against Scotland. The Scotland game against Wales shows that they were just caught on the hop,” Jones said. “That was a one-off, but now that one-off has crept into their psyche. They’re disappointed about where they are and they’re all feeling a bit threatened now. How do you change it around? It takes leadership on and off the field.”
England next travel to Italy, a game that has increased significance and pressure after the past two defeats before the finale against France.
The will face a team shorn of one of its attacking talents, however, after the Italian Rugby Federation announced on Tuesday that Ange Capuozzo will miss the the remainder of the Six Nations after the Toulouse full-back suffered a serious shoulder injury against France at the weekend.
Capuozzo scored Italy’s only try in the 33-8 defeat in Lille but came off worst when tackled 10 minutes from time by club teammate Anthony Jelonch. The 26-year-old’s absence from the field combined with a yellow card for Louis Lynagh meant Italy played the last few minutes with just 13 men.
Sunday’s match was Capuozzo’s first since 28 December when he broke a finger playing against La Rochelle.