Eddie Jones is tipping Steve Borthwick to one day become England head coach and made his prediction to RFU performance director Conor O’Shea in an episode of “The Eddie Jones Podcast”.
The former Bath and Saracens lock Borthwick won 57 caps for England as a player before moving into coaching.
He was Jones’s assistant with Japan before being appointed forwards coach of Bristol in 2015. He left the then Championship club later that year to take up a similar role with England alongside the newly appointed head coach Jones.
He is now is to become Leicester Tigers head coach at the end of the season with Geordan Murphy moving to the role of director of rugby.
And now the current England boss Jones has picked out the 40-year-old to one day lead England.
The Aussie said: “Steve did two years in Japan and four and half years with England did an absolutely superb job for us. It is time now to take his own job.
“He will go through his own apprenticeship as head coach and he will learn a lot and keep progressing. One day there is no doubt he will good enough to coach England.”
JOIN THE RUCK
Lawrence Dallaglio names his best World XV
The former England and Wasps captain picks his ‘perfect’ World XV for The Times.
15 CHRISTIAN CULLEN (NZ): Comes down to Cullen or Serge Blanco. While Blanco might have been a great player for a longer period, Cullen’s best years were sensational
14 DAVID CAMPESE (AUS): Wasn’t always generous in his comments about England but he was a great player and, really, he walks into the team
13 JERRY GUSCOTT (ENG): The way Jerry could accelerate onto a pass made him unique in my eyes. One of those players with the ability to do something that changed a game
12 FRANK BUNCE (NZ): Lots of people will say ‘how can you not pick Tim Horan at No 12?’ Horan was a great player, a better attacker than Bunce but I loved Bunce’s physicality
11 JONAH LOMU (NZ): If only for the matches he played against England, he would get in, but Lomu played plenty of other great matches.
