Borthwick springs to defence of under-fire captain Hartley
Steve Borthwick, the England forwards coach, launched an impassioned defence of captain Dylan Hartley yesterday, saying that his level of performance in the opening rounds of the Six Nations had been “excellent”.
England held an open training session at Twickenham in front of 12,000 spectators including Prince Harry. Ahead of their match against Italy a week tomorrow, the England coach, Eddie Jones, provided a hint of possible changes by starting the session with a new-look midfield combination of Owen Farrell, Ben Te’o and Elliot Daly. James Haskell, whom Borthwick confirmed would be fit enough to start after two replacement appearances, also featured at openside flanker.
Also present in the pack was Hartley, who was the first England player to be replaced in the victories against France and Wales, lasting 55 and 46 minutes before making way for Jamie George. The statistics from those games showed that Hartley has missed as many tackles – seven – as he has made carries.
Yet Borthwick insisted his contribution is a lot greater than a spreadsheet may suggest. “There’s lots of aspects to the game and if you look at the way that the England scrum has gone I think that it has been excellent and Dylan has been a central factor in driving that,” Borthwick said. “That’s not just on a match day, that’s every single day and driving that standard.
“I can talk to you about the accuracy of his line-out throwing, which I measure and it’s been excellent. The diligence that he’s put into that aspect of his game to improve that. So I don’t think that you can just look at those measures, you’ve got to look at the influence that you also have on the game.”
Borthwick also praised Hartley’s leadership, claiming the Northampton hooker’s very presence raised the performance of his team-mates. “He has been a brilliant captain. He has been fantastic and the level of his performance has been excellent also. Dylan’s impact upon this team is incredibly positive.”
There was further good news for England last night as Billy Vunipola confirmed he was recovering well from his knee-ligament injury after Jones raised the prospect he could return to face Ireland in the final round of the tournament on March 18.
“I’m meeting the specialist next week some time and then maybe we can start running,” Vunipola told BT Sport. “I feel good in myself and also my knee so hopefully it is good news. Is there a comeback date scheduled? Not as of yet. It was supposed to be the week after the Six Nations finishes but we will see how we go.”