According to Jeremy Guscott, Steve Borthwick should reconsider his choice of making Owen Farrell the captain of England, and he has also expressed doubts about Maro Itoje’s continued lack of performance at the Test level.
“Who Borthwick chooses as captain will be significant,” said Guscott, who was speaking to BettingSites.co.uk
“When I think of Geoff Cooke, he picked Will Carling as a young player, a young captain. (Clive) Woodward picked Lawrence Dallaglio and then Martin (Johnson) took over.
“Jack Rowell went close to home, Carling stopped and Phil de Glanville took over. For change to take place, mentally you need to hear from a different voice.”
“The English public has just got to come to terms with the fact that we are not as good as we may think we are. That is proven all around and, quite simply, if you lined up the Irish team, you lined up the French team, who from the England team would get into either of those teams?
“That is why Borthwick shouldn’t be microscopically judged on what happened in the Six Nations. What England wanted was a bigger improvement from the autumn. It was so disappointing in so many ways because it looked like they weren’t in the games. For large parts of the French game, they weren’t in it. Against Ireland, they came together a bit more. But we are lacking those special players, we are lacking stardust.
“Also, Borthwick’s decision right at the beginning to name Owen Farrell as captain was either going to have worked incredibly well or it was going to go horribly wrong. He is a hangover from Eddie. There is a lot of Eddie in Farrell and that is what he probably saw when he became coach. The warrior that Farrell is, the great leader that he is, it is a hangover and without Farrell, they would move on.
JOIN THE RUCK:
“I figured they would move on quicker without that. It’s a legacy from Eddie. I’m saying we ought to rethink that. Is it going forward and are England progressing with him? How much longer is Farrell going to play? Post-World Cup the future is probably Marcus Smith and maybe George Ford. So many times, Owen gets the ball 30 metres away from the try line and his first instinct, it seems, is always to kick.
“It’s much better to see that one pass and then make the decision. Marcus’ instinct is to run. George Ford’s instinct is to scan and then make a decision to kick or run. Owen’s first decision seems to be to kick. His influence over the team is enormous and if he is on a high, it works. But at the moment, he just looks a little bit slower than he used to be, more reserved than he used to be, and he certainly kicks more than he used to.
“Borthwick has got enough time between this last game and the first warm-up game (in August) and the England camp to decide if Farrell is the right choice. Personally, I can’t say no he is not because I’m not in the camp so I don’t know the upside of Owen Farrell. But the playing side at the moment isn’t influential enough for him to be in the team and to be captain.
“And where has Maro Itoje been? I was sitting next to a good friend watching the game at the Aviva Stadium. When Maro made his first ball carry, I didn’t know he was in the game. Maro used to get three turnovers a match and make 20 tackles. He was the man of the match most of the time. That has disappeared. It’s just a reflection of where England have been for the last three Six Nations championships.”
Premiership’s highest paid player each season from 1998 to 2022
The Gallagher Premiership is now filled with players who earn astronomical salaries. Year upon year, wages for top players seem to skyrocket.
By how much? We’ve identified the highest-paid Premiership player for every season since the game went professional to find out.
To do so, we’ve undertook painstaking research to delve into newspaper archives to reveal the reported player wages.
Some seasons had multiple highest earners with players signing contracts at different times throughout the campaign but they’ve used the highest earner at the end of each season.
Got it? Good.
Let’s take a look at the results:
1997-1998: Va’aiga Tuigamala (Newcastle Falcons) – £80,000 per season
Embed from Getty Images1999-2000: Francois Pienaar (Saracens) – £85,000 per season
Embed from Getty Images2000-2001: Jason Robinson (Sale Sharks) – £180,000 per season
Embed from Getty Images