Seven years ago this month, Eddie Jones kickstarted his tenure as England head coach by choosing his first captain. Time was short with the 2016 Six Nations championship fast approaching but he felt the team he had inherited needed a fresh voice. He ended up picking Dylan Hartley, concluding Chris Robshaw’s 43-Test stint in charge.
It was to prove an inspired move. Not only did England claim a Six Nations grand slam but they went on to win 18 successive Tests. By the time Hartley had to retire he had 25 wins from 30 Tests at the helm, meaning a winning percentage bettered only by the 87.17% (34 from 39 Tests) of the great Martin Johnson, under whom England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Even Will Carling – 44 wins from 59 games as England’s captain – could not quite manage those rarefied stats. Carling, though, was another interesting example of a bold captaincy choice that paid off. England had tried a few leaders without, for various reasons, finding a permanent solution before Geoff Cooke went with the inexperienced Carling in 1988. Again, the rest is largely triumphant history.
Which brings us to the conundrum facing Steve Borthwick in the opening days of a massive year forhe and his team. Does he stick with Owen Farrell, revert to the injury-plagued Courtney Lawes or opt for the road less travelled. The idiosyncratic Ellis Genge? Tom Curry? It has the feel of a signature choice, made all the more intriguing by Saracens’ big win over Exeter on New Year’s Eve.
In horrible conditions, Farrell had an outstanding game. He was also the master and commander of a Saracens team who knew precisely what they were doing and rose expertly above the wind and rain. With Marcus Smith sidelined of late, it does not require too shiny a crystal ball to envisage Farrell being handed the No 10 jersey when Borthwick names his side to face Scotland at Twickenham on 4 February.
If he ends up throwing any more killer offloads like the one that yielded Alex Lewington’s bonus-point try, Scotland really will have their hands full. Perhaps the most fascinating snapshot, though, came after Farrell had dropped a waist-high pass from his scrum-half, Aled Davies. Rather than apologising, he responded by angrily rebuking Davies for throwing him the ball in the first place when better alternative options existed. In that split second it was possible to see the essence of Farrell: a world-class competitor for whom bruised individual feelings or outside perceptions are secondary to his team fulfilling its full potential.
Does that make him the perfect captain? Sam Walker’s excellent book, The Captain Class, examined the broader question in detail. After seeking to quantify the best sports teams that have existed – from gridiron to ice hockey and basketball to cricket – Walker then sought to identify what, if anything, all those sides had in common. The conclusion he reached was fascinating: they all had captains who exhibited broadly similar characteristics.
The traits that seemed to count for most were extreme doggedness and focus in competition, aggressive play that tested the limits of the rules, a willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows, a low-key and democratic communication style, an ability to motivate with passionate non-verbal displays, the courage to stand apart and, finally, iron-clad emotional control. The best captains, in other words, were not necessarily superstars or given to tubthumping oratory. They were the ones who, by consistently setting standards and making things happen, motivated those around them.
When you measure Johnson and Hartley against those criteria they seem an almost perfect fit. So, to a large extent, is Farrell. And yet Farrell’s winning percentage, after 24 victories from 38 Tests as England captain, sits at 63.16%. To put that into context, Lawes’s stands at 62.5% (five wins from eight Tests, including a series win in Australia last summer) while Robshaw finished up with a 60.46% success rate. In short, there is very little between any of them; all the stats serve to do is burnish Hartley’s record even more.
The last person who requires lecturing about the nuances of national captaincy is Borthwick. When he did the job, at a tricky time in England’s history, his win percentage was in the 40s. He understands better than anyone how other factors, such as the quality of the players available and the relative strength of the opposition, can undermine the best of intentions and canniest of leaders.
That said, he is also a keen reader and a smart thinker. On the one hand he will feel Farrell’s fire and drive, properly channelled, ticks almost every box. On the other, with Lawes now troubled with a muscle strain, you suspect he will be thinking long and hard about Genge, whom he installed as captain and rated highly when they were at Leicester. The Tigers duly won the Premiership title and have been a slightly less irresistible force since he moved to Bristol.
So how should Borthwick proceed? He may well be tempted to stick with Farrell and potentially let Genge loose in a World Cup warm-up fixture. But does that give England the fresh impetus they need? Fortune favours the brave and all that. Furthermore, what if Farrell is reappointed and keeps the job for another couple of seasons? As things stand his father, Andy, is a clear favourite to coach the British & Irish Lions in Australia in 2025. Imagine if his son, with Johnny Sexton and Alun Wyn Jones in the twilight of their careers, is also the chief captaincy candidate. It makes England’s next move all the more interesting.
This is an extract from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
