Six Nations: Borthwick aims for victory in every England game

Borthwick insists he has not been distracted from the job in hand, and has had no edicts from his embattled bosses regarding either win targets or financial belt-tightening.

“At this point before the start of the tournament why would we not be going into every game aiming to win every game?” Borthwick told BBC Sport.

“It’s what every England supporter would expect of me and the players and it’s what we expect of ourselves.

“Ever since I have come into this role two years ago I have had nothing but support from the RFU about what we want to do.

“Our focus is about the Six Nations that is coming up, and how we get the performances and results we want to get.”

Borthwick stressed all through the autumn that the team was progressing, and improving, and developing their identity, but he has made a big change ahead of the Championship, with Maro Itoje taking over the captaincy from Jamie George.

The reasoning makes sense: Itoje is four years George’s junior, walks into the team, and is almost guaranteed to play 80 minutes.

But George is one of the most popular members of the squad and led the side with real class on and off the field. It is a big call.

There will also be strategic shifts.

Former assistant coach Felix Jones joined from South Africa 12 months ago and introduced a Springboks-style blitz defence.

Just when it looked as if it was it bearing fruit, Jones resigned abruptly.

As a consequence, the defence was a mess in the autumn, although Borthwick also referenced how many line-breaks England conceded against New Zealand in the summer, when Jones was in situ.

“To be really clear, we are a line-speed team,” Borthwick said.

“I want the team coming off the line and putting the opposition under pressure. Will there be alterations and slight tweaks? Yes. There will be positional things that will be a little bit different.”

With the ball, however, Borthwick has promised more of the same.

Having played little rugby in 2023, England opened up in 2024, with Borthwick vowing to persist with an attacking style in 2025.

“This is a team that has evolved over this last year and has continued to evolve,” he said.

“I sense what the England supporters want to see is the England team continuing to move the ball and play with pace, because that is what gets them out of their seats.”