Borthwick sends worrying message to Saracens’ and Gloucester’s England stars
It is never an encouraging sign for any players playing club rugby to look into the stands and see the England head fast asleep.
Unfortunately for Gloucester and Saracens players, that was the case last night during their kick fest at Kingsholm. In windy conditions, which made it difficult to keep the ball, and with the scores level in the closing stages, neither side took any risks at playing in their own half, which produced a lot of kicks. This in turn sent England’s new head coach into a deep, deep sleep.
The moment has fortunately been captured:
Steve’s asleep. pic.twitter.com/8yA7iqK7Iv
— Jim Hamilton (@jimhamilton4) January 6, 2023
Of course, Borthwick was not sleeping, rather he was studiously taking notes of what he was witnessing, and he would have liked what he saw. Ben Earl seemed to win his mandatory man of the match award this season, which was the perfect message to send to the England head coach after being overlooked by Eddie Jones for over a year now. His recall to the national team seems all but a certainty after the season he is having and after being named the Gallagher Premiership player of the season last campaign.
Owen Farrell would also have caught Borthwick’s eye for a number of reasons. His match winning drop goal showed his class and skill, but equally his high tackle on Jack Clement, which went unpunished, showed his bad side.
This is what Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said about the tackle: “I was pitch-side for the last three or four minutes, so I haven’t seen it yet.
“I have heard there is a potential high tackle that I will have to look at.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: “It is really tricky to comment on it. I don’t want to end up in a judiciary myself, so I have to keep shtum.
“I will just say that consistency across games will be good.”
