"Arguably the best in the world" – Steve Borthwick won't doubt Ireland strengths despite Andy Farrell's Six Nations absence

Yesterday at 01:00 PM

The preparations are steadily wrapping up for Steve Borthwick’s England team, who travel out to Dublin next weekend for the opening round of the 2025 Men’s Guinness Six Nations. The countdown to ‘Rugby’s Greatest Championship’ continues to draw ever nearer, and Borthwick has begun to assess the threats that Ireland possess, albeit without the oversight of Andy Farrell.

Farrell will be absent from the Irish coaching box for the entirety of the 2025 Six Nations, in what is the first time since 2016. Farrell has handed over the reins to Simon Easterby, who will take up an interim head coach role for the tournament. Farrell is now well into his role as British & Irish Lions head coach, and will use the following championship as a scouting operation to piece together his touring squad.

Borthwick approached the subject, as to whether Farrell’s exit will have a significant impact upon the Ireland squad. The England head coach believes that Ireland already have an almighty amount of team cohesion, due to the overwhelming majority of the squad playing the provincial rugby together with Leinster. Borthwick can’t see any immediate advantage that his side can take from Farrell’s absence, with the ‘crux’ of the Ireland squad set to provide a significant challenge to his side at the Aviva Stadium.

“The coaching team’s been together so long and they’ve worked together for such a long period, I don’t sense that would be a great factor.” Borthwick told the media, at the 2025 Men’s Guinness Six Nations launch event in Rome. “In a sense I think there’ll be a lot of consistency. I think when you’re picking so many players from one team as well….is it 23 of the 36 from Leinster? Is that correct? They know each other and understand each other.

“When they play their phase attack, when they bring that multi-phase attack that they can bring, they’re very, very dangerous and you know, they can play phase upon phase and it becomes a test of concentration, there’s a test of discipline and they’re looking for some opportunities, and some lapse in concentration from the defender and then they’ll get you – it’s four, five phases, six, eight, 10 phases.

“You’ve got to keep concentrated on it because with discipline. I think that’s the crux of this battle. They’ve started kicking much more contestable as most teams have but they’ve really started kicking many more contestable kicks and I’d be interested whether they’re going to do that; whether they’re going to bring a contestable game or are they going to play their phase game. I think it’s the phase game that’s the real threat. When they play that they are arguably the best in the world.”

If the vast contingency of the Ireland squad is not enough to secure Leinster their successes, the Dubliners have been bolstered by a duo of marquee Summer signings. Leinster welcomed talismanic All Blacks midfielder Jordie Barrett and hulking Springboks lock RG Snyman to the Irish capital, where the latter reunites with his former South African coach Jacques Neinaber.

Borthwick can see how the Rugby World Cup winning coach has influenced the Irish province, which will have an inevitable knock-on effect onto the performance of the national team. The England head coach believes that having a core group of international players at one given club, has an immense impact upon the synergy of the national side as they come into training camps.

“At 52 minutes, Bath are still winning (against Leinster – Champions Cup Fourth Round), and Bath are in their own half. They make an error and that’s when Leinster capitalise. They bring the carries, then they bring Doris carries it, they have Snyman – who I know won’t be in the Ireland team – but you can imagine what they’ll bring, it’s Doris, it’s Aki, it’s James Lowe. And that came from making the mistake of not getting out of your own half correctly, and that’s a picture of Ireland’s threat.”

“I think you saw Ireland’s attack on the opposition breakdown – you see the same thing with Leinster. What’ll be interesting is how that is officiated. World Rugby talked last week about some factors of how they want that officiated and making sure it’s legal and within the laws. That’s going to be an important area for our referee on the day.”

“Clearly, we want England to be a dominant force at all levels, but there are a few factors involved. Our players are spread over a lot of clubs, whereas other countries have more a concentration of players. The obvious example is Leinster, but there's also Benetton with so many Italian players, Toulouse with such a great spine of the French team and Bordeaux with a number of France backs.”

“So, there are concentrations of players in clubs like that and that is a factor. It is a factor because I have to bring players together from nine different clubs into this one team and build those relationships very quickly. When England have had dominant teams in Europe, think of Leicester and Wasps and Saracens, they would have big contingents of players in the England team. It is certainly a factor which helps in international rugby, in terms of having success.”

One man who will be pivotal in driving England success throughout the 2025 Six Nations is Marcus Smith, with the fly half eager to replicate his heroics of the triumph over Ireland from last year’s competition. The image of Smith nailing the match winning drop goal has been etched into recent England Rugby lore, in what was one of the rare occasions that Borthwick’s side were able to topple a titan of the Test stage, that were positioned higher than them in the World Rugby Rankings.

Borthwick is keen to unleash the Harlequin in the 2025 campaign, with Smith set to jostle for the 10 shirt alongside George Ford and Fin Smith. Borthwick cast an eye across his halfback options, and expressed his desire to make the right choice for the trip to Dublin.

“If you look at the way Marcus gets that ball and he often skips out to that next player. Fin Smith attacks in a different way, much squarer. That means there is a change for everybody who plays outside them. Your start position and your running line naturally changes because their end point changes. That is just two, because George Ford is slightly different as well.

“I have to make sure that we are consistent, that players can bring all their strengths and the understanding of all of those around them is at its very best. At club level, when you have played 100 games with each other and trained every day and come through the academy together, it is instinctual because you have played game-upon-game-upon game together. At international rugby you don’t.

“One of the great strengths we have is the Premiership, but it is a challenge that we spread players over nine clubs. We're looking at all kinds of ways to get players to understand each other quicker and more effectively. That is another reason why there is consistency in selection. That is the balance I have always got to find from a selection point of view: building relationships, building cohesion and getting the right players on the park at the right time.”

Marcus Smith is the focus of the first episode of season two, for the Netflix series ‘Six Nations: Full Contact’. The cameras follow the Harlequin behind the scenes, as he buys a new Mercedes Benz ‘G-Wagon’ and signs brand deals as rugby’s newest superstar. Whilst the inaugural episode of season two is yet to hit the TV screens (airing on 29th January), Borthwick understands the importance of putting big names like Smith at the forefront, in order to engage more viewers into rugby.

“Rather than comment on that series, what I will say is: there is no doubt right now, it is fact that rugby needs to grow its presence in young people. We are starting to see other sports start on it, e-sports. Who connects with young people? It is the superstars of our game.

“We do have a responsibility to connect with the young for the growth of our game going forward. We have a great bunch of players. They are really good players and really good people. If they can connect with supporters in ways in which they do, connect with young people and make sure people are interested in our game, then our game continues to grow. We have a phenomenal game.'

“Do the players feel the responsibility to the supporters? Without question. They want the supporters with them. They want to play in a manner that has the support excited. They want to play in a manner that has the supporters proud of them. I really sense that of them. This is a young squad who want to be connected with them. Now, going back to your first question, I sense very much that the players focused on playing for their clubs and trying to win for their clubs by doing that playing well in selection to the squad and now focus is upon the performances in the Six Nations.”

The post “Arguably the best in the world” – Steve Borthwick won’t doubt Ireland strengths despite Andy Farrell’s Six Nations absence appeared first on Ruck.