Former England rugby stars Ugo Monye and Courtney Lawes were involved in a tense TV argument as head coach Steve Borthwick was forced to deny claims that his side are facing a crisis.
England’s defeat to South Africa cranked up the heat on Borthwick following their disappointing 29-20 loss at the hands of the Springboks in the Autumn Nations at Twickenham on Saturday.
Shortly after the game had finished, ex-England internationals Monye and Lawes engaged in a heated debate over the current state of England’s progress after they were beaten again.
When asked by TNT Sports presenter Craig Doyle if England were in crisis mode, Lawes said: “It’s too early in the year to be a crisis, we’ve got time.
“It’s always a build-up to the World Cup and yes, there’s things you want to win in between that. But this is the start of a new campaign and we’ve got to give them a chance.”
But Monye, a regular rugby pundit on TNT, clearly disagreed: “It’s not far off a crisis, Courtney. We’re going to end up in the Autumn Nations with one win out of four, that’s awful,” he added.
“When we look at the end of this year, we would’ve won four out of 10 matches. For a team that wants to win a World Cup and that was in a World Cup semi-final, that was in a World Cup final the one before, this is so sub-standard from where we expect our team to be.”
Lawes conceded it had been a tough watch and pointed to the main issue Borthwick is facing with his side: “Ultimately we’re not cohesive enough as a team,” the 35-year-old said. “We’re not cohesive in defence, we’re not cohesive in attack so we end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard too often.
“This is going to be hard for the boys and it’s really tough to watch to be honest. All they can do is get back up, get back to training next week and try and take a step forward. That’s all you can do at this point.
“What’s done is done. They have to develop as a team, they’ve got time to do it. It’s disappointing but you’ve got to get back up and go again.”
But Monye questioned why England needed more time after two years under Borthwick, replying: “Sometimes it’s looked awful, that’s it. You say it needs time, I’m very surprised. How much time? It’s been two years. We’re not getting enough out of our players.
“If you look through the team sheet I’m looking at a huge amount of talented players, and for some reason we aren’t getting the maximum potential out of our players. We’re just not.
“We’re seeing players who are tearing it up for their clubs come into camp with great form. Of course, international rugby is very different to domestic rugby, but for whatever reason we’re not able to reach the potential ceiling that we would expect from this team.”
Borthwick has insisted he still has the Rugby Football Union’s backing to turn things around, despite embarking on a five-game losing run for the first time since 2018.
“I’m not going to talk about private conversations,” he said. “But what’s more important is the feeling that I get, and the feeling that I get from the RFU is absolute support and absolute belief that this team is going in the right direction.”
