Imperfect it may have been, but the win over Scotland showed the never-say-die scrambling the head coach and defensive overseer Joe El-Abd want from the squad – cut repeatedly by Finn Russell, Huw Jones and Van der Merwe in the first half, England managed to avoid Scotland turning points into pressure with relentless, accurate defensive stands inside their 22.
England generally played well across 2024 yet found themselves coming out on the wrong side of results; in these last two rounds of the Six Nations, they have been outclassed for significant periods yet ended up just about on the right side of the ledger.
But the flanker had already emptied the tank to set the tone for England’s performance – and in Ben, on minutes earlier after Tom Willis’s head injury, Borthwick could call upon a ready-made replacement.
Statisticians will tell you that a side that regularly comes out on the wrong side of tight games will eventually find the tables turn; after the pain of last year, this side have earned the rub of the green.
During the autumn, El-Abd had sought to complete the erection of England’s grand defensive designs, sticking with the “hammer” system diagrammed by former defensive coach Felix Jones.
