Former England fly-half Stuart Barnes has torn into the RFU's decision to award a contract extension to head coach Steve Borthwick ahead of next year's Rugby World Cup, arguing that he should have been sacked instead.
It was announced last week that Borthwick's contract will be extended past the 2028 Six Nations to clear up any uncertainty over his future heading into the World Cup. It came after the head coach found himself under mounting pressure during a disastrous Six Nations campaign in which his side lost four out of their five games.
Barnes: England are a second-tier Six Nations side
Barnes - now a top rugby journalist with The Times - believes that dismal tournament run should have seen Borthwick sacked, with the former Bath star pulling no punches as he reacted to the news that the RFU have instead backed him for a further 18 months.
Having long criticised England's performances under Borthwick - who was appointed head coach in 2022 - the 63-year-old believes his reign has been characterised by "failure", with the national team now "a second-tier Six Nations side".
"Judge England on results, or performance"
Tearing into the decision to award Borthwick a contract extension in a furious column for The Times, Barnes claimed that England's defeat to South Africa in the semi-final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup "might just be the highlight" of the head coach's reign.
"All those matches between the last World Cup and the next one - the Six Nations disappointments of 2024 and 2025, and the collapse this year," he wrote. "There have been a couple of unlucky defeats and a few flukes. Judge England on results, or performance, and the overall assessment is the same. Failure."
Reflecting on their recent Six Nations disaster and a mixed Nations Championship campaign, Barnes continued: "England should have sacked their head coach before the France game with its rare lightning bolts. Instead, Borthwick continued. His side were thumped by South Africa and he wasted the opportunity to field fresh faces against Fiji. The Argentina game was an ugly mess and now, here we are, on the verge of a new season with the manager's contract extended."
Comparison with New Zealand's decisive action
Barnes went on to compare the RFU's reaction to that of New Zealand, who sacked Scott Robertson at the start of this year before replacing him with Dave Rennie - a coach he believes has made the All Blacks into "2027 contenders".
"To dump Robertson and replace him was decisive management," he wrote. "New Zealand acted ruthlessly after losing to England brought an end to a disappointing year in terms of performance and results. England seem to have an ostrich policy of wait and see."
The former England international went on to hit out at RFU performance director Conor O'Shea, who claimed last week that the national team were one of five teams who are in the mix to win next year's World Cup.
Insisting O'Shea's claim "makes little sense" and is made with "a bloody great dollop of blind faith", Barnes added: "New Zealand acted in their moment of crisis. All England have done is ignored the evidence, delayed the day. Under Borthwick, there has frequently seemed to be an excess of paralysis by analysis.
"Still, agree or disagree, it is better than key decision-makers at the RFU making unjustifiable claims regarding England's World Cup hopes, secure in the knowledge that the reason for the failure to act in 2026 will be forgotten come the spring of 2028."
