Why Borthwick’s ex-housemate will be on RFU radar to succeed Jones

Steve Borthwick arrived at the Premiership Rugby awards dinner in 2022, just 11 days before his Leicester Tigers side won the title, having spent the car journey down to London analysing second division French rugby on his laptop. Even so, the opening game of the Pro D2 season on Thursday night may not have ordinarily created the biggest blip on the radar of the England head coach.
But Borthwick is in the unexpected position of having to identify England’s next defence coach after Felix Jones, who won two World Cups with South Africa, shocked players and staff by tendering his resignation. The RFU intends to hold Jones to his 12-month notice period, but it would seem counter-productive to keep the Irishman in an environment he is understood to have described as “unstable”.
The Pro D2 season opened with Brive, for whom Courtney Lawes was making his debut, hosting Oyonnax, a small club from a scenic town near the Swiss border who are vying for an immediate return to the Top 14. They also happen to be coached by Borthwick’s Bath university housemate.
Joe El-Abd, the former Bristol Bears and Toulon flanker, is still close friends with Borthwick and is seen by multiple sources within the game as a strong contender to join the England set-up, having carved out an impressive reputation during a decade-long coaching career in France.
El-Abd finished his playing days at Oyonnax, helping the club achieve their first promotion into the Top 14, in 2013. He transitioned into coaching and has won two further promotions with Oyonnax, in 2017 as an assistant coach and last year as head coach. In between, he was the defence coach at Castres when they won the French league title in 2018.
“He speaks with a real assurance and authority,” one source said. “It is not based on reputation. It is based on who and what he is. I have always been very taken by him, very impressed.”
El-Abd fielded Top 14 job offers over the summer and is seen in England as a future Gallagher Premiership director of rugby. The 44-year-old’s name will definitely be on the wall of the RFU’s so-called war-room at Twickenham, where all England’s coaching succession planning is done by Nigel Redman, the performance director. Back in 2019, El-Abd was invited to coach England’s defence in a game against the Barbarians at Twickenham. “Steve would trust him,” another source said.
The fundamental question Borthwick must answer is how wedded he is to the blitz defence. Would a new coach be given freedom to bring in their own style, or must they be prepared to continue the all-out blitz that England committed to playing this year?
Usually, it is seen as imperative that a defence coach employs a system that they know inside out. “Each system has intricacies that can be very specific to the system itself, and feed the system to ensure it works under different pressures,” one coach explained.
Shaun Edwards, the godfather of the blitz defence, would be the statement signing that would help Borthwick re-exert some authority; a flexing of the muscles after the blow of losing Jones and Aled Walters, who quit as head of strength and conditioning to join Ireland.
The RFU has never been agile enough in their recruitment to land Edwards, another English coach who has excelled abroad. He is now contracted with France until the 2027 World Cup, which is an expensive complication. But one well-placed source argued that he would improve on Jones’s work by blocking some of the “gaping holes they’ve left in recent times”.
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“I’d expect him to have the ability to maintain the aspects of the blitz that he wants, continue to get the emotional reward that England have built upon from defending in that manner, and block some of the gaping holes they’ve had in there in recent times,” the source said.
“The system itself under Felix seemed to be at the extreme end of the rush spectrum. It was an out-and-out blitz with no consideration for context. It clearly shook up the All Blacks, but it also led England conceding two tries a Test that should not be being conceded.”
If Borthwick is wedded to the blitz, Exeter Chiefs are the Premiership club who defend the most like England, hence Borthwick’s reliance on Henry Slade through the Six Nations and summer tour. Ali Hepher, the well-respected head coach, or Omar Mouneimne, the defence coach, could feasibly feature on the war-room white board.
However, South Africa have proven an interesting case study. The Springboks have retained the blitz system that was installed by Jacques Nienaber, with Jerry Flannery, his successor, applying a few technical changes.
Kevin Sinfield did something similar when he took over as the defence coach of Leicester Tigers under Borthwick, tweaking things by drilling the players to tackle low with great effect and bring a high-pressure line speed.
Sinfield also ran England’s defence through the World Cup, but a transition back into that job is not thought to be on the table. It is understood England are pressing on with contract negotiations for a part-time position as skills coach and a mentoring role.
Joe Worsley, with a stellar playing reputation after winning 78 caps for England, is another defence coach who has cut his teeth in France and gained international experience with Georgia, currently working for Castres.
There are Premiership coaches who will interest England. Borthwick was close to recruiting Lee Radford to Leicester. The former Hull FC player ultimately joined Northampton Saints and his first-season contribution was critical to the club’s Premiership title campaign. Dominic Waldouck, at Gloucester, is an intelligent, impressive young coach, who was invited to join the England A set-up last season.
The Premiership is producing some promising coaches, but it would be no surprise if Borthwick’s recruitment took him outside of England; potentially to the Swiss border and to his old house-mate from Bath university.