BORTH CERTIFICATE
Ireland coach Catt gives ex-team-mate his stamp of approval and backs him for England success
MIKE CATT remembers Steve Borthwick as “obsessive” about rugby and expects his ex-bath team-mate to have England firing against Ireland.
Former England star Catt was a senior player at the Rec when Borthwick made his breakthrough as a teenager.
On Saturday week they will be occupying opposite coaching boxes at Twickenham as Ireland look to make it five wins in a row against the old enemy who have been led by Borthwick for just over a year now.
“Steve was, what would I call it, he was obsessive about rugby,” said Catt, Ireland’s soon to be departing attack coach.
“And I think that’s something that he was always going to do – go into coaching on the back of it, that whole obsession and desire to be successful.
“I had him as a 17/18 year-old when he turned up at Bath and he’d be out on the pitch with me for a lot of hours. He only wanted to be the best he could be.
“So I think that’s probably what he’s taking into his coaching stuff as well.”
England’s defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield is a warning for Catt that a big home performance is coming in London.
“Yeah, they are not going to make as many errors as they did against Scotland, believe me, they are not going to let that happen again,” he said. “They are going to be a much better side than they were against Scotland – and we’ve got to prepare ourselves for it.
“They’ve got a lot to work on in terms of their defence and their attack.
“It’s not just one thing that they need to do, so they’ll get there and it’s four or five weeks into the competition now and they’ll get better and better each week.
“We expect them to be a lot better.
“And that’s always what we’ve thrived on as a team, especially over the last year, year and a half – being able to embrace that pressure. The boys love that challenge.”
Steve was obsessive about rugby and wanted to be the best