Steve Borthwick’s former boss at Leicester Tigers, Geordan Murphy, has launched a stinging attack on the England head coach and likened him to Eddie Jones.
Borthwick is facing a crunch Six Nations clash with France at Twickenham on Saturday, after going down to Ireland 27-22 in their opening game of the campaign, and did not see eye-to-eye with Murphy during their time together at Welford Road.
Murphy and Borthwick worked together briefly during their time at Leicester Tigers, before the former Ireland full-back left, Borthwick taking charge and leading them to a Premiership title.
Speaking of his former assistant, Murphy is dumbfounded at the decision to appoint Borthwick as England boss, considering the similarities he noticed between Borthwick and his predecessor Jones.
“If [England] do think of getting rid of Steve, then the questions have to be asked, and fingers pointed elsewhere as well because he effectively is a ‘Tall Eddie Jones’,” Murphy told Prime Casino.
“That’s what I’m hearing in camp, that his behaviour is very similar to Eddie. So why would you get rid of one bloke and replace him with an English clone?
“There’s a lot of people who’ve been complicit in making that decision, so I think it looks bad for a lot of people. So, no I don’t think you do get rid of him. I don’t think they can get rid of him. I think they’ll stick with him. But that’s good for everyone else!”
Borthwick worked as an assistant to Jones at England before leaving for Leicester, when Murphy was moved to director of rugby when the former Bath and Saracens lock was placed in charge of the team. Murphy was removed from the position months later.
Though he admitted that Borthwick is a “good coach”, Murphy followed that up by describing the England leader as “certainly not a people person” as pressure continues to mount ahead of France’s trip to Twickenham.
He continued: “I never played with Steve. I played against him. I played against him, played England-Ireland, played Leicester-Bath, Leicester-Saracens against him. I worked with him very briefly at Leicester during the pandemic. He can coach; I think he’s a good coach – that’s it.
“We are certainly not friends. That’s all I know. When I briefly worked with Steve that was something that he made very apparent. He said to me, ‘I don’t want to be your friend’.
“That makes it very difficult when you’re in a working environment and somebody comes to you and says that. He just cares about being a good coach. I only really saw him on the surface so I didn’t really get to know him too well.
“He’s very single-minded, very focused on facts and figures. He’s certainly not a people person. That wouldn’t be something that would ever be said about him.”
