England head coach Steve Borthwick believes his team are well placed to challenge for a first Six Nations title since 2020 after revealing his squad for the championship.
Borthwick’s side enter 2026 on an 11-match winning run and open their tournament against Wales at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday 7 February.
Most place England as second favourites for the Six Nations behind defending champions France, who will host their rivals in the final fixture of “Super Saturday” on 14 March.
England lost out by a point despite beating the eventual winners last year, with their title chances ultimately ended by an opening defeat in Dublin to Ireland.
While an away Calcutta Cup against Scotland, home clash with Ireland and that final fixture at the Stade de France represent a tricky itinerary, Borthwick has challenged his side to travel to Paris with a title within reach.
“I think the first thing I’d like to say about that is I think it is brilliant that people are talking in that way about this England team,” Borthwick said in terms of expectations of an English title challenge.
“They can see the development of the team and they can see the talent that’s in the team and they can see the potential that’s in it. I think we’re nowhere near maxing out the potential. It’s got a lot of talent within it.
“[The squad] met a couple of weeks ago and we talked about the Six Nations Championship. We know it’s tight, we know there’s lots of good teams in it. We also know the last seven Six Nations Championships have gone down to the last round of fixtures and we talked about that as a team.
“On the 14th of March in Paris, we want to be in a position entering that game where we can achieve what we’re all aiming to achieve. We want England fans flooding across the Channel to Paris to come and watch the team in a massive encounter on the final round with the opportunity to achieve what we want. We also know that the only way you get there is by ensuring each of you take each step one at a time and get our preparation right for the start of the tournament.”
England have sometimes struggled at the start of campaigns, with Borthwick feeling that a squad drawn from a wide range of Premiership clubs have sometimes arrived under-prepared for Test rugby.
The introduction of enhanced EPS contracts, which give the head coach greater control over a group of 25 core players, and the arrival of Phil Morrow from Saracens as head of performance have addressed certain conditioning concerns, though.
Borthwick believes the side can continue to improve.
“I’ve said this many times, but I think this team has the potential to be an outstanding team,” he said. “We have players in there with huge amounts of talent, and whilst we’re still reasonably low on experience at Test level, as they get used to Test rugby their growth is going to be enormous.
“I’m really pleased at how the players are embracing how we want to play, and taking the game on. I want them to attack this tournament, and I talked earlier on about them coming in with a mindset to play brave, and attack this tournament.
The other aspect is that the growth of this team is going to be so dependent on how hard we work and improve. I asked the players two weeks ago to come in ready, and I want to ask them to embrace the physical and mental intensity that we’re going to train at to take the team further on than where we are now.”
England will assemble in Girona, Spain on Tuesday to begin their preparations for the Six Nations. Injured quintet Fin Baxter, Tom Roebuck, Fin Smith, Ollie Lawrence and Ben Curry will travel to continue their rehabilitation, but have not yet been definitively ruled out of the opener against Wales.
“I think they’ve got a chance,” Borthwick said of the five. “For the Wales Test match, I think it would be tight. We’d need the rehab to go really well and tick all the boxes through the process. It’s tight but I think they’re all within a shot of it.”
