England rugby coach Steve Borthwick has received backing from current star Dan Cole after coming under fire for their latest defeat against South Africa.
Borthwick’s men were beaten 29-20 in the Autumn Nations Series to extend their miserable run of consecutive defeats to five games. Their loss at the hands of the Springboks comes after similar margin defeats to New Zealand and Australia in November, with the 45-year-old now facing increased scrutiny on his position.
But England icon Cole, who has won 116 caps for his country, has laughed off suggestions that Borthwick should be having to defend himself from questions over his job and insists he remains the right man for the role.
Speaking to fellow Red Rose centurion and Leicester Tigers team-mate Ben Youngs on the ‘For The Love Of Rugby’ podcast, Cole said: “I think, having read some of the papers flicking through my phone online the past couple of days, there’s a frustration around Steve that after the game he had to answer the question: ‘Is he the right man for the job?’
“Yes, he’s the f****** right man for the job. I get it, we’ve lost six games, but it’s a different streak to 2018. I think we’ve had two really bad games in the past calendar year [against Scotland and Australia],” he added.
“What I will say is that we lost to New Zealand by a post, France just beat New Zealand by a point and they’ve just been declared the greatest team in the world.
“Ireland lost to New Zealand and were expected to win, so it sounds like New Zealand are actually quite good. But we lose by two points and we’re c**p.
“If that ball goes six inches the other way, does it change? Do we become France? Do we become the best side in the world? It’s such a fickle place we live in.
“Right now, we’ve lost to some very good teams. We’ve been in the games, we’ve not had our a**’ kicked, we’ve been competitive in all the games. For Steve to have to answer questions about his job, just behave people.”
With only eight of Borthwick’s 36-man squad boasting more than 50 caps, Cole theorised that the lack of international caps amongst the squad could be costing England.
“There’s experience and there’s caps, and there’s, ‘how many times have people been in those situations where the game is on the line in the final two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes?’,” he said.
“In recent times there’s been quite a few but, prior to that, people might have 30 caps but in pressure situations at Twickenham, how many times have they been in that situation?
“You can say experience, experience, experience but ultimately, until you’ve been in those situations – now we’ve been in three in a row – that’s a different experience.”
