[2025 Six Nations] England vs Scotland - 22/02/25

[Ragey Erasmus]

It takes quite an incredible coach to be so bad that they not only employ the wrong tactics, then pick the wrong players for those wrong tactics but to seemingly muck stuff up so much that seasoned professionals can't even execute the most basic skills they would have been practicing from day 1 any more.

Borthwick has successfully got the entire team playing worse than they do at club level. I cannot think of a single player who is actually stepping up and doing better for England. That's unacceptable.

I remember articles a while ago about English players complaining at the media saying they were boring etc etc. There was a big thing about them changing the brand of rugby. They haven't, they've become one of the most uninspiring and feeble England teams in my lifetime.

 

[Zed]

England's win was opportunistic and sometimes that's all that matters. Improvement will follow.

Will it follow? SB has seemingly settled on a turgid style of rugby that is going to grind out some victories. But this was against a team ranked 7th in the world, they played at home and lost the try count 1-3. Imagine if they played the ABs or SA away, it would be a slaughter. You can't kick away possession to a team like South Africa. They're not going to boot it into touch giving England a lineout. They're not going to drop the ball giving England a scrum. They're going to attack with some of the best attacking players in world rugby. There's something missing with SB, he doesn't quite get it. I think England have the potential, with the players they have, to b a top 3 side. But they need a different coach, one that is adaptive.