Steve Borthwick will fly to New Zealand on Monday for a reconnaissance mission as he begins plotting England’s summer assault on the All Blacks – just 48 hours after the end of their Six Nations campaign.
Borthwick travels to New Zealand buoyed by the manner in which England finished the tournament – even in defeat against France on Saturday night – after his players came so close to backing up the thrilling win against Ireland with a victory for the ages in Lyon.
After a sluggish start to the competition, England rediscovered their attacking identity in the last two rounds and brought back the feelgood factor, before games against Japan in June and back-to-back Tests against the All Blacks in July.
With England searching for a first win on tour against the All Blacks since 2003 Borthwick pledged to take a full-strength squad on the summer tour rather than rest senior players. On their last trip to New Zealand in 2014 England were whitewashed under Stuart Lancaster but, having scouted out Japan before the Six Nations, Borthwick will leave no stone unturned as he seeks to build upon his side’s recent promise.
“Every time an England team comes together we intend to be improving and get better,” the head coach said. “I am on a plane to New Zealand on Monday, I have got to go and put plans in place for where we are going to be and how we will do it, so we prepare properly.
“In a week’s time we will understand exactly where we are going with our training programmes, our locations, our venues, so we give the team the best opportunity to get the result we want. I’ll be taking the very best players that are available for selection at that point in time.”
On the eve of the Six Nations, Borthwick was frustrated that information about injuries to some of his players was slow in being provided by Premiership clubs but when he returns from the summer tour he intends to finalise who will be offered the 25 “enhanced” Rugby Football Union contracts which will give him a greater say in the conditioning of his troops all year round. Details remain thin on the ground, however, with Jamie George – one of only two players to be offered an enhanced deal – admitting last week that “we don’t know in what capacity or what value or who might get them”.
Borthwick said: “All details have not been confirmed. I’m waiting to have them and understand them. In terms of understanding where our players are at, so there are no surprises at the start of the tournament. So the night the squad is finalised, [we are not] finding out players are unavailable. Situations like that we won’t have in the future.
“The working relationship with the Premiership clubs is a step forward and it is preparing players better for the international environment without question – and I want that to continue. My relationship with all the head coaches, directors of rugby and clubs is vitally important. We all want the best players playing to the best of their abilities so we have the best Premiership product and an England team that is ready.
“We started the tournaments with some players unavailable for selection and we need our players available. You can see now there’s a development with the Premiership. You see the standard of the Premiership is improving and the players are more ready for Test rugby. Going forward we need to make sure that when we have a Test coming that those players are available and fit from the start of the tournament.”
