Borthwick's Rome Disaster: Is This The END?! Rugby World Stunned!

England’s loss to Italy in Rome – their first ever Six Nations defeat at the hands of the Azzurri – has more than just dented national pride; it’s ignited a full-blown crisis conversation. The 23-18 defeat has exposed some pretty deep-seated issues within the squad, and the knives, frankly, are out.

Borthwick's Rome Disaster: Is This The END?! Rugby...

As the English players trudged off the field, the whispers of a crisis – something I’d heard increasingly frequently in press boxes over the last few weeks – suddenly feel deafening. Three consecutive defeats now, and the upcoming clash against France paints a grim picture. If England loses next weekend, they’ll suffer the ignominy of four defeats in a single Six Nations campaign – something nobody saw coming a few months ago. And let's not forget, a tough away game against the world champion Springboks looms large. Honestly, it feels like things could get a lot worse before they get better.

The big question everyone’s asking is: who should be steering the ship? Captain Maro Itoje, whose appointment last year coincided with a 12-match winning streak, has undeniably been a central figure in England's successes throughout his 101 appearances. But, and this is a big but, he was also right in the thick of this Roman debacle. After a largely anonymous first half, he showed glimpses of his old self early in the second, securing two vital turnovers.

However, with England leading by a slender two points and Sam Underhill cooling his heels in the sin-bin, Itoje’s frankly baffling attempt to slap the ball out of scrum-half Alessandro Garbisi’s hands resulted in a penalty… and a yellow card. It was a moment of madness, plain and simple.

"He will be furious with himself for that penalty and yellow card," said former England scrum-half Matt Dawson, and he's not wrong. "He won't sleep well tonight, and unfortunately, it's only going to get worse. The media will be on him, the fans will be on him and the team, because it is absolutely unacceptable." Strong words, but hard to argue with.

England somehow managed to survive that period with 13 men, but Itoje's absence seemed to drain the life out of them, fueling Italy’s late, game-winning surge. With their captain off the pitch, head coach Steve Borthwick clearly hesitated to bring off veteran hooker Jamie George, seemingly worried it would destabilize England’s line-out and remove crucial on-field leadership. The consequence? The 35-year-old George was left battling it out on the field, carrying the ball in the dying minutes as England desperately chased the game. A substitution at that point might have injected some much-needed energy, but Borthwick played it safe and it backfired.

And it's not just this game. Itoje’s yellow card was his second of the tournament, following a sin-binning against Wales. Discipline, or rather the lack of it, has been a recurring theme for the entire team throughout this Six Nations. Henry Pollock and Freddie Steward received yellow cards against Ireland, and Henry Arundell was penalized twice against Scotland, leaving England down a man for a significant chunk of the game. And lest we forget, Tom Curry…well, the list goes on. Is Borthwick losing control? Is Itoje the right man to lead this team out of the mire? The questions are piling up, and the pressure is mounting.