Premiership verdict: Borthwick aces test but relegation is sorely missed

Leicester’s dramatic final triumph clarified a few things from England’s perspective. If this was Steve Borthwick’s big audition to take over from Eddie Jones as the national head coach after next year’s World Cup he passed the test convincingly. Shrewd selection, attention to detail, an unselfish attitude, a keen eye for a smart backroom appointment and the ability to stay calm while all around him are losing it – any prospect of the Rugby Football Union hiring anyone else to succeed Jones is fast receding.

Assuming they can be prised away from the Tigers, the odds must also be shortening on Kevin Sinfield and Aled Walters being approached as well. It would be no surprise, either, to see Conor O’Shea take on a more public-facing director of rugby role to help reduce Borthwick’s media load. The latter may have presided over one of the great English turnarounds but celebratory post-match body-popping à la Scott Robertson is not, as yet, his speciality.

The gripping game on Saturday underlined the continuing emergence of some impressive young English players. In addition to the input of 30-somethings such as Freddie Burns and Richard Wigglesworth, there were also highly promising final contributions from Freddie Steward and Ollie Chessum, both of whom should be touring Australia with England this summer. For all that, Jones and his watching assistants will have noted the impact made by Argentina’s Julián Montoya and the South African bruise brothers, Jasper Wiese and Hanro Liebenberg.

Their modus operandi was not dissimilar to that of the European winners, La Rochelle (whose massive pack included, as it happens, Liebenberg’s brother Wiaan), and South Africa also dominated the United Rugby Championship final, won by the