NICK CAIN

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ONE of the strangest aspects of keeping a watching brief on Steve Borthwick and his cluster of England coaches is their susceptibility to “starting from scratch syndrome”. At the start of every autumn series, or Six Nations, the prevailing narrative is that head coach Borthwick and company are facing a race against time to bed-in a new squad which they have never coached, and which has rarely played together.
It is a complete myth. Players like Maro Itoje, Jamie George, George Ford, Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Sla...