England search for 'some depth' as Six Nations preparations is in full swing

England boss Steve Borthwick is now fully focused on next year’s Six Nations after they finished their Rugby World Cup campaign on a high with a win over Argentina in Friday’s Bronze Final in Paris.

Borthwick’s Six Nations preparations had already begun before the Red Rose players were presented with their World Cup bronze medals, and he has made increasing depth in certain positions his priority.

After suffering a narrow 16-15 defeat to South Africa in their semi-final, England sealed a hard-fought 26-23 victory in front of a hostile crowd at the Stade de France.

England showed plenty of resilience to deal with Los Pumas, who were highly motivated to do well after suffering a humiliating 44-6 loss to New Zealand in their semi-final.

Solid platform ahead of the Six Nations

Borthwick now has a solid platform to build on for the Six Nations, and the most pressing task after the World Cup is to compile his review of the competition before discussing his findings with his coaching staff within two weeks.

He revealed that part of the review will focus on the lack of options in some areas – primarily the front-row and at inside centre.

“I’ve already started looking forward to the Six Nations. The planning is in the early stages and already started in my mind,” Borthwick said.

“Naturally, at the end of World Cups, there are always some players that decide their time as a current England player will come to an end, but the age profile of the squad is strong.

“If you look at the semi-finals last week, we had seven players who were 25 or under – more than any other team in the semi-finals.

“And there are a number of exciting young players that didn’t make the 33-man squad but who were part of the preparations over the summer.

“We know that the distribution positionally of those players isn’t necessarily even. We know there are some areas where we’re a bit thinner than others.

“I need to make sure we’re doing some work and finding some depth in those key positions.

“That’s going to be part of my project over the next period of time, along with my coaches.”

Theo Dan shone against Los Pumas, but the knockout games against Fiji and South Africa were deemed too big a stage for the inexperienced hooker, which meant Jamie George had to start and finish both those matches.

The defeat to the Springboks revealed that England do not have the scrummaging props in the class of veteran duo Dan Cole and Joe Marler, while inside centre has long been a position where the Red Rose have struggled beyond Manu Tuilagi.

What they will not be short of in the Six Nations, however, is an identity with lock Ollie Chessum revealing strong bonds have been formed over the last two months.

“We spoke about finishing this tournament and making sure England was in a better spot than it was when we came in,” he said.

Moving in the right direction

“We had a very up and down summer series, and there was a lot of umming and aahing, and we really felt we needed to find ourselves, and that is exactly what this team has done.

“We have found our identity; we have found what we are about as a team. We have got a great group of players and a great group of people in this squad.

“We showed everyone that we can compete with the best up there. We fell short last weekend, but we have come away with a medal.

“The boys are looking forward to a well-earned rest, but everyone has loved every minute, and it is a shame the tournament has come to an end

“It is going to be weird waking up in my own bed on Monday and not in a hotel with the lads!”