England begin to deliver on Borthwick’s promises… but I still have my doubts ...Middle East

PRINCIPALITY STADIUM — France’s march to the 2025 Six Nations title on Saturday night took a little lustre off England‘s remarkable performance against Wales earlier in the day, but not much.

The sheer swagger and scoring poise of England as they pulverised Wales with 10 tries, inflicting a record total of points conceded by the Welsh at home, was deserving of high praise even if the weakness of the opposition cannot be ignored.

There were standout contributions from Ben Curry with his signature turnovers and Maro Itoje with his staggering workrate – the captain was still fighting for breakdown possessions in the 79th minute – and the pizzazz of young Henry Pollock coming off the bench for two tries on his Test debut.

England also dabbled in their development with Ben Earl in the centres and Chandler Cunningham-South in the second row, and the Welsh fans streaming out of the exits long before the final whistle told a story of a home team on the end of a 17th straight defeat, and with no Six Nations win at this famous stadium since 2022.

England and France finished with four wins each in this Six Nations, but still, for Itoje’s team, it is a boost to have finished in the top two places for the first time since 2020.

For extra context, they have improved on the bang-average return of nine wins in their 20 Six Nations matches in the seasons 2021 to 2024.

The qualification is, this year, they only sneaked past the French and Scotland by a single point each, at Twickenham.

So it might be an error to get carried away by the great leap forward suggested by the hammerings of the two worst teams in the Championship, Italy and Wales, in the final two rounds in the past week – even as England’s head coach Steve Borthwick was rushing to hand out boarding passes for this summer’s British & Lions tour to “hopefully lots of players” after this match.

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He said he would enthusiastically endorse Itoje as Lions captain, and that possibility is a live one, even if the 30-year-old Saracen conceded three penalties in this match and has developed a habit some referees might frown on, of approaching them for a chat while an opposing goal-kicker is making his preparations.

Borthwick can be forgiven for touting his men, in the circumstances, and meanwhile the pressure he was under for his job at the end of 2024, with one close defeat after another, has receded, and maybe was always unfair considering the significant number of England players who had recently retired or gone to play in France.

The measured introduction of Fin Smith to the fly-half position looks to be going well, and the advancement of Will Stuart at tighthead prop could make the Bath man, who played his 50th England Test here, one of those touring Lions.

The lingering question is whether England have nailed the inner belief and sporting thick skin to start predicting wins over top opposition like South Africa.

A revealing passage in the former England scum-half Danny Care’s recent autobiography gives a clue to how Borthwick judges this key psychological standpoint.

Borthwick’s analysts ran a load of numbers through a computer before England faced South Africa in the 2023 World Cup semi-final, and it came up with a predicted two-point defeat.

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It was used as motivation for the team to see why they should not be overawed by the challenge, although as it turned out they did lose, by a point.

And then we remember they might be sitting as Six Nations champions now if they had done better in the opening-round loss in Ireland on the first weekend of February.

But it’s only fair to return to the good stuff on this day in Cardiff: the tap-tackle lunge by Luke Cowan-Dickie to prevent a try by Blair Murray; the Ben Curry chargedown in the preamble to Tommy Freeman that made the latter the first Englishman to score in every match of a Six Nations; the slick line-out move rounded off by Itoje in the third minute to get it all going.

“The team has stuck to the process, and taken enjoyment in the process, of getting better,” said Borthwick, and while it might seem a prosaic statement, it had a ring of truth and of promise for the future.

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