Borthwick's England delivering on his promise

LONDON :A year ago, having lost to South Africa in a miserable autumn to stretch their losing run to five matches, England coach Steve Borthwick kept his chin up and pleaded with disgruntled fans not to panic and to keep the faith.

He pointed out that the five losses had come against top-level opposition - three to New Zealand and once each to Australia and the Springboks - and that they had been mostly narrow defeats during a period of development.

"This year has been one of transitioning a lot of young players into this England team, which I think have an incredibly exciting future and it's also transitioning the way we're trying to play," Borthwick said at the time having overseen seven defeats in 11 games.

"You can see when the team moves the ball, you see the talent and pace that we have... we just have to make all those moments count and I'm very confident about our trajectory."

Seen through the prism of 2025, it is hard to argue that he did not know exactly what he was talking about as Saturday's superb 33-19 victory over the All Blacks took England's winning streak to 10. They will be aiming to stretch that run to 11 against Argentina next Sunday.

South Africa are now the only leading nation they have yet to beat under Borthwick and though the Springboks seem to be ahead of the rest of the world at the moment, England would certainly not fear them.

Borthwick has been true to his word in moving England on from the kick-based team who came so close to reaching the World Cup final in 2023 to a side that now possesses a real all-court game.

Youthful players such as Tom Roebuck, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Ollie Lawrence, Guy Pepper and super-sub Henry Pollock have established themselves as real test performers and Borthwick