Steve Borthwick: Scots should support Gregor Townsend

by The TRU Team Tuesday 10 February 2026

The pressure seems to have been ramped up on Gregor Townsend following his side’s opening Six Nations defeat by Italy

©PA

England head coach Steve Borthwick has urged Scotland supporters to ease the criticism on Gregor Townsend ahead of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash.

The Scotland boss is facing intense scrutiny following their surprising defeat to Italy in their Six Nations opener last weekend.

After a disappointing autumn campaign - where Scotland were unable to turn promising positions against New Zealand - and more so Argentina - into notable victories, last week, Townsend made the unusual claim that a report linking him to the Newcastle Red Bulls job for after the 2027 World Cup was written as a distraction tactic before they host England at Murrayfield.

Scotland have slipped to 10th in the world rankings and, while he has a record of five wins and one draw from his eight Calcutta Cups, the pressure is mounting on Townsend.

However, Borthwick emphasised that his counterpart is the most successful coach Scotland has produced in the professional era.

“Firstly, I think Gregor Townsend is a wonderful coach. I was told recently that he has the best win record of any Scotland coach in the professional era. Sir Ian McGeechan had two spells and I think Gregor sits above that. The way he has coached the attack they have, and the way they move the ball, when they do that, they look terrific.

“I have immense respect for him as a coach and I find it surprising that people are not spending more time talking about Scotland rather than not supporting their coach. I think he’s a phenomenal coach and they should spend more time supporting him.”

The atmosphere, whichever way you look at it, is set to be lively on Saturday evening, with England arriving in Edinburgh on a 12-match winning run.

They have, however, won only once at Murrayfield since 2016, but Borthwick's seemingly well-oiled machine are in a good moment to improve on that unwanted statistic.

The England boss has restored Maro Itoje to the starting XV and promoted Luke Cowan-Dickie to start at hooker, but has largely kept faith with the team that thumped Wales 48-7 last week.

With Fin Smith taking a bench spot over Marcus, England may look light in the backs department, but back-rowers Ben Earl and the "freedom to roam" Henry Pollock are more than capable of playing their part out of position.

“[Henry’s] got incredible pace and super handling skills and you see not just his ability to make breaks, but how he supports breaks,” Borthwick said.

“How often do you see him on somebody’s shoulder taking an offload and then running on and scoring or potentially giving another offload for somebody else to score? His skill set and the way he plays the game is less within a structure and more within having freedom to roam to go and find the ball and find where he needs to be. I’m very confident with him in that position.”

“This is a brilliant place to play rugby, against a very good team,” Bortwick added. “If you go back, how have I, how have we approached it?

"How exciting is this, another brilliant international in this fantastic championship and another step in the development of this team and a great challenge playing against a Scotland team who have a lot of top quality players in it.”

England team vs Scotland: Steward; Roebuck, Freeman, Dingwall, Arundell; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Heyes, Chessum, Itoje, Pepper, Underhill, Earl.

Replacements: George, Rodd, Davison, Coles, Pollock, T Curry, Spencer, F Smith