Steve Borthwick explains how England predecessors helped him block out the noise

By Duncan Bech

Steve Borthwick revealed that advice from his predecessors as England head coach helped focus his mind entering one of the most important moments of his Twickenham reign.

Australia were crushed 45-22 to launch the autumn with a bang as Borthwick’s players delivered an emphatic rebuttal to a report stating that he presided over a toxic environment during the July tour.

A record win against the Wallabies has relieved the pressure on Borthwick, who on Wednesday was given the full backing of RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney to remain in place for next year’s World Cup.

However, England needed a convincing win amid an otherwise poor 2026 to stop the storm clouds swirling around their under-fire boss, who was the focus of a newspaper article calling into question his methods and man-management skills.

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Supportive

Borthwick said: “In the last couple of days, a number of my predecessors reached out to me constantly and they certainly do.

“They’re always supportive.

“I won’t name who they are, but the basic gist of it was ‘been there, got the T-shirt’.

“As England head coach, you need to focus on the rugby and that’s what I’ve done this week.

“That’s what the players have done. That’s what every member of the staff have done.”

Henry Pollock was among the stars of a conclusive Nations Championship victory after scoring two tries having come on as a wing replacement for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

It was the first time Pollock, a back row, had played in the position but impressed as England’s latest hybrid player after Ben Earl emerged as another success story of the afternoon.

Excellent

Borthwick said: “I say this in all the right ways, but we now have to bear Henry Pollock saying playing on the wing is easy and that he can play anywhere on the pitch!

“We suggested the front row and he said ‘no’, he didn’t want to do that!

“He was excellent and now we hear a lot about it – that’s the downside.”

The only cloud over the performance were injuries sustained by Feyi-Waboso and centre Seb Atkinson.

Feyi-Waboso began limping during the first half because of an ankle problem.

He was replaced at the interval with Borthwick revealing he needs further investigation to assess the extent of the damage.

Atkinson limped off in the 64th minute with a bruised hip and is a doubt for Saturday’s match against Eddie Jones’ Japan.

Disappointing

It was the third game in a row in which Australia conceded over 40 points and captain Harry Wilson refused to make excuses for the performance.

Wilson said: “It was really disappointing.

“We didn’t fire a shot in the first half. We felt like we were always trying to exit our half because of the field position England were able to get.

“They were really physical and they made it tough for us.

“I expected better from us and we have to attack these learnings for Scotland next weekend.

“Every game we want to win and three 20-point losses on the trot is not good enough.

“We want a big response against Scotland and we need to be more physical.”

READ MORE: England 45-22 Australia: Henry Pollock stars as Red Rose claim record victory against Wallabies