Steve Borthwick’s captain is normally cool under pressure, but rare outburst points to a much bigger problem
M
artin Johnson, England’s World-Cup winning skipper, believes there is no huge mystery to being a great captain. “If you haven’t got a good team it doesn’t matter how good a captain you are,” he said on the Rugby Legends podcast before the start of this year’s Six Nations. And if anyone is qualified to provide such a definitive judgment it is unquestionably him.
To suggest that calm, sure-footed leadership is irrelevant in top-level sport, however, is another matter. Even the greatest sides need decisive, intelligent direction, regardless of who supplies it. The other imperative is to have everyone pulling in the same direction. Shared responsibility and collective ownership are everything, particularly in rugby where the all-for-one, one-for-all ethos is fundamental.
Hence why the public on-field spat between Maro Itoje and his fly-half Fin Smith early in the second half of England’s 23-18 defeat in Rome has raised eyebrows. England were ahead 12-10 and had just won a scrum penalty near the Italian line. Immediately it felt like a revealing moment: would they kick for the posts or, in search of potentially greater reward, double down on their momentum, go to the corner and set up a close-range lineout drive?
