Steve Borthwick must have watched these semi-finals and wondered what’s happening in the Prem.
When he took Leicester Tigers to the Prem title in 2022, he did it off relentless defence and as little attack, and its corresponding risk, as he could get away with. The 3.7 tries per match his side scored that season are better than only three teams this year.
The Prem has never seen such turbo-charged attack, or disinterest in defence, yet it doesn’t seem that has filtered up to the man leading England, who still insists on taming the talents who come into his camps.
At a raucous Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night, Northampton Saints opened the scoring from their own 22. Scrum-half Archie McParland noticed an opportunity to beat prop Nicky Smith and then fed Henry Pollock, who would have been told off for running away from his support by coaches up and down the country.
The phenom bounced to the wing and gave centre Rory Hutchinson the ball. He chucked it back inside to where he knew trailing players would be and it bounced into the hands of McParland. A couple of phases later and Tom Litchfield ghosted through to open the scoring. This was total rugby led by two men: head coach Phil Dowson and attack coach Sam Vesty. Many feel they would inject this freewheeling verve into England.
