England have no Owen Farrell or Dylan Hartley to read the riot act and that is a problem

Owen Farrell of England reacts during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 quarter-final match between England and Fiji at Stade Velodrome on October 15, 2023 in Marseille, France.
Owen Farrell would call team-mates to task for individual errors during his time as England captain - Dan Mullan/Getty Images

There is a time for disappointment. There is a time for frustration. And then there is a time for white-hot, molten fury.

England need to quickly discover their inner reserves of rage after a dispiriting, disastrous defeat by Australia if they are to have any chance of going toe to toe with South Africa, who come to town on Saturday. They also need to get angry to shatter the sense of complacency that has enveloped every nook and cranny of Twickenham.

Complacency that has allowed the Rugby Football Union to give a free pass to Steve Borthwick to assemble a coaching staff made up of friends and former colleagues. Complacency that led captain Jamie George to think that it was “job done” after 20 minutes against Australia. Complacency that allows a perception to fester that a run of five successive defeats against tier-one opponents represents some form of progress.

The question is who within the England set-up is prepared to read the riot act for the 35 missed tackles and 19 turnovers committed against Australia. For so long it was the responsibility of Owen Farrell to drive standards by admonishing individual errors. Before that Dylan Hartley was the one delivering hard truths. Go further back and it is very hard to imagine Martin Johnson allowing his team and their kids to go on a celebratory fun lap of Twickenham after shipping a record number of points to Australia at home. Speak to coaches around the Premiership and they say the balls to hold team-mates to account is one of the rarest qualities in the modern game.

This week represents a huge test of George as a captain. He has helped to build a more collegiate, calmer atmosphere around the team. Multiple players attest this is the best environment of which they have been a part and George has done more than anyone to connect the team back to the supporters in both word and deed.

The bank of goodwill is evaporating

But that bank of goodwill is rapidly evaporating. No one could complain that they did not get their money’s worth in a mad-cap game of 79 points but the first hints of mutiny were apparent when the introduction of Harry Randall and George Ford was booed, although that protest died down when it was clear that Marcus Smith would remain on the pitch.

George is perfectly entitled to highlight the attacking transformation England have undergone in the past 12 months but he also has a responsibility as captain to hold individuals to account for the cascade of errors that contributed to the concession of five tries that he described as “unacceptable”.

Jamie George of England looks dejected as he leaves the pitch following defeat by Australia in the Autumn Nations Series 2025 at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
Jamie George is facing a huge test of his captaincy this week - Dan Mullan/Getty Images

“We’re not going to shirk away from the honest conversations that might need to happen this week about seeing games out and we know that we need to change that,” George said. “We need clarity on what went wrong, be honest and hold your hand up if you’ve made a wrong decision or missed a tackle or whatever it might be, so that we can all learn from it. That’s what it’s got to be about. Is there going to be a bite to training? An extra bit of physicality? Yeah, but that’s only a good thing.”

Players should not be put in the stocks for knocking a ball on but the familiar pattern of self-inflicted errors in this recent run of defeats is highly troubling. Borthwick has made a big point of needing to build cohesion and continuity by sticking with the same team, but is that – together with the guaranteed money provided by the enhanced elite player squad contracts – breeding a degree of cosiness and yet more complacency? Certainly when Borthwick told his players that they had a licence to make mistakes, he probably did not envisage they would be committing multiple result-defining turnovers in the final 10 minutes.

Worst result of the Borthwick era

It is worth repeating that Australia came into this game as 11-point underdogs. They lost five games in the Rugby Championship by an average margin of 20 points. Joe Schmidt made plain that his sights were firmly set on the Lions tour. For pure carelessness, it was the worst result of the Borthwick era.

It seems no coincidence that the previous two lowlights – a home loss to Fiji and the 30-21 defeat by Scotland – immediately preceded Borthwick’s signature wins: the 27-10 win against Argentina in the World Cup and the 23-22 defeat of Six Nations champions Ireland this year. “This team’s always been brilliant at responding when questions have been asked of us and our character. And we need to respond,” Ben Earl, the flanker, said. “I think we know that when we’re on the song, we can beat anyone. We can beat anyone.

“I think it will be a question of Steve, no doubt, in terms of wanting us to get better, he’ll ask us some pretty harsh questions this week and we’ve got to stand up to the challenge. I’ve not seen it too many times when I’ve seen it. It’s pretty daunting and it makes things change pretty quickly.”

Ben Earl of England is tackled by Ox Nche and RG Snyman of South Africa during the Rugby World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa at Stade de France
A victory for England over South Africa on Saturday would soften the blow of recent defeats - David Rogers/Getty Images

Recency bias means that victory over South Africa would ensure the autumn and possibly 2024 as a whole would be remembered as a success. Defeat would mean England equal their worst run of results since 2018 when the Eddie Jones’s bandwagon started wobbling.

The RFU has already indicated that it will stand by Borthwick come what may. Earl also says there should not even be any questions of the Borthwick project. Again this smacks of a misplaced degree of complacency that will further undermine the trust they have with their supporters.

Anger is a toxic, dangerous emotion. But right now England need to harness rage wherever they can find it – from the commentary of their performances, from South Africa’s antics around last year’s World Cup semi-final and most importantly with themselves – and unleash it all on the Springboks to save their autumn.