Steve Borthwick wants ‘right environment’ amid Danny Care claims about Eddie Jones’ ‘toxic’ England regime

England head coach Steve Borthwick has said he wants to create the “right environment” after Danny Care’s claim that Eddie Jones created a “toxic environment” during his six years in charge.

Care, who announced his retirement from international rugby after earning 101 caps for England, compared Jones’ leadership to a ‘dystopian novel’ in his new book Everything Happens for a Reason: My Life in Rugby, an extract of which was published in The Times, also comparing the Australian’s rule to a ‘dictatorship’.

Scrum-half Care, who was exiled from the international team from 2018 until 2022, also makes the claims that Jones ‘ruled by fear’ and that he was dropped from the side via voicemail.

Jones, who is now head coach of Japan after a brief stint in charge of Australia, took England on a 17-game winning run when he first took over and won the Six Nations twice in 2016 and 2017 but was ultimately sacked in 2022.

England head coach Borthwick worked as assistant to Jones before taking over the top job in 2022 but believes he cannot comment on the experience of somebody else, and is rather focused on the environment he is creating currently.

“You wouldn’t expect me to be commenting on somebody else’s experience of the environment,” Borthwick told Sky Sports.

“You would also expect my full focus and attention to be on this environment and this time right now.

“I am very clear on the right environment that I want to build with this group of players now. That is where my attention is.

“We focus in this environment on speaking to the players regularly about what they need to ensure we enhance their performances.

“We have got a young squad, many of whom are new to Test rugby and I will say, I am really grateful to the senior players we have in the squad.”

However, Australia’s Samu Kerevi has defended Jones’ style and said that “cultural differences” could be a factor.

“I think if you look at Danny’s picture, he had Eddie for a long time,” said Kerevi.

“We had him for six or seven months. Personally, we were winning. It is tough when you are not winning games, your backs are against the wall, you are trying to improve and ultimately, Eddie was trying to get the best out of us.

“We had a young group going into the World Cup, it was a very disappointing result for us, but we took a lot of learnings.

“A lot of guys in that squad will look back on that experience and it will be tough but they will have learnt and I hope that they are better coming into this regime with Joe (Schmidt).

“I can already see the switch and how excited they are to be able to perform for Australia.

“I think it is a differing of opinions. Like I say we had a short amount of time with Eddie- short and sweet.”

England have named an unchanged starting XV to face Australia on Saturday from the team that suffered an agonising 24-22 defeat to New Zealand last weekend.

England’s team to face Australia:

15) George Furbank (Northampton Saints)
14) Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs)
13) Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby)
12) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
11) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)
10) Marcus Smith (Harlequins)
9) Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby)
1) Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears)
2) Jamie George (Saracens) – captain
3) Will Stuart (Bath Rugby)
4) Maro Itoje (Saracens)
5) George Martin (Leicester Tigers)
6) Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins)
7) Tom Curry (Sale Sharks)
8) Ben Earl (Saracens)

Replacements: 16) Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks), 17) Fin Baxter (Harlequins), 18) Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), 19) Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), 20) Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins), 21) Harry Randall (Bristol Bears), 22) George Ford (Sale Sharks), 23) Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints)

What’s next?

England’s Autumn Nations Series continues against Australia at Allianz Stadium on November 9 (kick-off 3.10pm), while New Zealand face Ireland in Dublin on November 8 (kick-off 8.10pm).