England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth has drawn parallels with Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United as he calls for Steve Borthwick’s regime to be given the time needed to spark a revival.
One match in and England are already playing to save their Guinness Six Nations with a 27-22 defeat by Ireland leaving no margin for error when France visit Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
A run of seven defeats in nine Tests and seven in a row against top-tier opposition has seen pressure build on Borthwick, with his future now being questioned.
“I’m fascinated by this coach (Amorim) and, with my limited knowledge of football, just from watching him as a coach and how he speaks, he’s the real deal,” the former England scrum-half said.
“I love how he speaks about the team. He’s honest about players and he’s been criticised for being so. He comes across as honest. He looks as though he values the right things, which is that you cannot win unless you can run.
“As a fan, I’m thinking someone has to be given time to grab this and sort it out. Otherwise, the whole thing starts again – staffing, players all change. That is proven to not be the way to do it. You need the right man.
“To me, he looks incredibly impressive. So, given time, resources – and a bit of luck that everyone always needs – it would be nice to see him turn it around.
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“We want to win, but not everyone gets to win all the time, straight away. We are working to make that process happen, but there is evidence to back up the best way of creating good teams over time. We’re going to get there.
“We’re seeing green shoots of this England team – we play fast, we’re aggressive and we scored tries against Ireland.”
Borthwick names his team to face Les Bleus on Thursday afternoon, with Fin Smith expected to be picked at fly-half and Marcus Smith moving to full-back. Tom Willis is likely to be promoted to the back line.
