England head coach Steve Borthwick has stressed the importance of taking things one game at a time during the upcoming Six Nations and beyond, starting with a difficult clash against old rivals Scotland.
Borthwick was named England boss following the decision to part company with the long-serving Eddie Jones at the tail end of last year, following a poor 2022 in which the team won just five of their 12 Tests.
The former Leicester Tigers head coach faces an action-packed first year at the helm with the Six Nations being followed by the Rugby World Cup in France later this year.
England have lost three of their five games in both of the last two editions of the Six Nations, but when asked what would make for a successful tournament, Borthwick was keen to stress the importance of not looking beyond his first game in charge against a Scotland side with an impressive head-to-head record against England recently.
"I've been privileged to be part of this tournament from Under-21s, even younger, schoolboys to then playing in the senior team then as assistant coach and now as head coach. It's an incredible tournament to be part of," Borthwick told Sports Mole.
"We're going to be clear with my team, and I've gone on record saying this - we're going to go into every single game aiming to win that game. We're going to try and get into a position to win that game. I want the players going on the pitch feeling they are prepared in a way that will give them the best opportunity to win the game.
"That is going to be our objective for every game, and that's going to start in the first game of the tournament, and then after that we'll look at the second game of the tournament, then we'll go to the third game, and after that so on. That's going to be the way we work going forward.
"Why? Because even in this year of unbelievable rugby ahead of us, with the World Cup at the latter part of it, you can start moving your focus towards that, and if you're not careful you end up missing what's right in front of you, and you end up missing opportunities. You end up thinking about something which is in the future, not something that's right in front of you in the present moment right now.
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"We're going to be working with the players on a daily basis to prepare for facing Scotland; our players deserve that, our supporters deserve that attitude from us, and ultimately that's going to be necessary as this Scotland team - I was reading a piece by one of the Ireland assistant coaches and he was saying that this Scotland team is the best Scotland team he has ever seen either as a player or as a coach.
"This is a Scotland team that England have only beaten once in the last five championship games, this is a Scotland team that came within a kick of beating Australia, should have beaten New Zealand and ultimately well beat Argentina that had just knocked off England at Twickenham, so we're going to have to be very good on that opening day because I imagine this is a Scotland team who are going to come very confident."
Scotland finished below England on points difference in last year's Six Nations table, but Borthwick was full of praise for Gregor Townsend's side and believes that they will arrive at Twickenham on February 4 "expecting to win".
"Scotland are a very good team, I think they're really well coached. They've got a good system there, I think they're well organised in terms of the two teams feeding into the national team, the access to the players they have," he told reporters.
"They've got talent across the board, and I know they'll have been disappointed with some previous teams in the past, but this Scotland team - I heard someone describing it today as the best Scotland team in recent generations, and I don't think we can disagree with that.
"You look at the talent they've got, the players they've got, the athleticism they have, so I think they'll be coming to Twickenham expecting to win, and that's going to be their attitude. What we're going to do, we're going to focus on being the best team we can be.
"We've got a poor record the last five games, we've only won one, so it's an incredible challenge and we'll need to make sure we use every minute between now and that game to be prepared for it, and we're going to need every single one of our reporters at Twickenham to be roaring this team on. We're going to need to be all in, every one of us - the 80,000 people in that stadium have got to be all in on helping the team."
England will be without Courtney Lawes and George McGuigan for that game after both suffered injuries in recent club outings, while Jamie George, Mako Vunipola and Elliot Daly are also doubts following Saracens' defeat to Edinburgh at the weekend.
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"Courtney Lawes - we know for definite he's not going to be involved next week. It didn't look good the way he pulled up afterwards and couldn't run it off, so we'll get a full understanding of that injury later on today and then we'll have a better picture of a plan," Borthwick added.
"Similar with George McGuigan - injured his knee in the game for Gloucester last weekend, and he is being scanned today. We need the scan to see what is actually going on inside the knee, and we'll have a plan thereafter. Neither player are going to be involved this week, and then we'll assess thereafter.
"Yesterday there was a couple of knocks and bangs. We saw Jamie George leave the field for a head injury assessment and then return and then leave the field as a permanent replacement. He's followed through now with a graduated return to play, following those protocols.
"Mako Vunipola didn't play, Elliot came off - both of those guys are being assessed today to get a full understanding of what is happening there. Hopefully those injuries aren't too serious, but we'll have a better picture of that later today."
The latter trio's Saracens teammate Owen Farrell has been retained as captain by Borthwick and will be expected to line up against Scotland when the tournament begins next weekend, but the new boss would not be drawn on what position he may play.
"We are here on Monday, January 23 and the game against Scotland is on Saturday, February 4 - the team will be announced two days before that Scotland game, as is customary. There's going to be a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and then," he told reporters.
"There's a lot of things that can happen and things can change, there's more information I need to get about multiple aspects, and then I'll make the decision around selection.
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"The thing that strikes me the most is how awesome is it to have such competition for places? For me as head coach, to have players the calibre of Owen Farrell competing to be in this team - Marcus Smith, young Fin Smith, he is a superb talent. George Ford returning to fitness soon - you've got great, great players in this team, and many of them have got positional flexibility, which is also a great asset. So in that sense, we started this conversation talking about players who potentially aren't available, well I'm excited by the players who are available."
Farrell's own participation had been in doubt due to a ban for a dangerous tackle on Gloucester's Jack Clement on January 6, but the suspension has been reduced to three weeks as a result of Farrell completing the World Rugby coaching intervention programme, which includes a safe tackling course.
"I did a few bits last week at the club. I think it gave me a chance to look at the situation that got me here in the first place, and I'll look at it in good detail and do some bits to correct it," the England captain told reporters.
"Probably the most important bit around this is that the game is going this way to make sure that everyone is tackling safely and to make sure the players are safe and us as a team want to make sure we're at the forefront of that.
"We want to make sure that we're on the right side of these tackles, that we play as hard as we can and the way the game is intended to be played, but also as fair and as safe as we can. Me as a player in this team want to be a big part of that."
Farrell is one of the senior statesmen in the England squad with more than 100 caps to his name, and he talked up the importance of the Six Nations even in a World Cup year.
"I think this tournament is one of the best tournaments in the world. I think it's got a massive amount of history, you grow up watching it, supporting England," he added.
"I was lucky enough to watch my dad play for England at Twickenham in the Six Nations, but I guess when I first got a full understanding for what this tournament is about and the amount of pride and passion that's involved in it is when I made my debut against Scotland at Murrayfield in 2012.
"Seeing it up close, but getting to feel it as well, how important this tournament is, how passionate so many people are about it, and in terms of how many times you've played in it there's obviously some great memories from it and some not so good ones probably.
"We're massively looking forward to meeting up today and getting together so that we can throw everything that we've got into that first game against Scotland."
After opening their campaign at home to Scotland February 4, England then take on Italy at home, Wales away and France at home before finishing away against favourites Ireland.
Barney Corkhill
