Shaun Edwards England the conundrum may not be the fire getting out of control, but the smoke is certainly fueling the media atmosphere surrounding the national team.
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It now appears that the game’s most prominent defensive coach of the past 20 years will likely never get the chance to coach his country of birth in the men’s game.
The RugbyPass article last month is being debated The RFU may be considering a safe coaching ticket for John Mitchell and Edwards, Steve Borthwick fell over the hurdles in November at the Nations Championship. Wiganer’s resume agrees. He won more silverware in his glittering coaching career than any other Englishman. Seven Six Nations titles with Wales and France, four Grand Slams, four English Premiership titles with Wasps and two more European Champions Cups in the same club. All that’s missing from that resume is a partridge on a pear tree.
The catch is none of those trophies won with your home country. Edwards appeared within England’s reach after joining the Women’s World Champions Red Roses as a consultant, but the latest revelations from the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly have seen him bypassed once again, this time by the current head coach. Edwards joked for England, “if that was a kit assistant, I’d be there, ready to go”.
When you dig into the details, Edwards only gets better for Borthwick’s defensive needs. During the England 2026 Six Nations, when teams entered England’s 22m ‘red zone’, they were more likely to score. The Men in White conceded a high competition of 3.2 points per entry, 20% more than any of their rivals.
They also gave up the highest ratio of missed moves converted into breaks or attempts (44%), and they missed the most in wider channels from 15-5 meters (30%). England’s defense conceded an average of over 30 points per game, and gave up over 40 points in two matches against Ireland and France.
If there are two areas where Edwards could immediately help England, even as a squad player, it is in winning the ‘alpha test’ close to the goal line, and in defending beyond the goal, where the decision-making of the last full-back on the edge has become so crucial to the outcome of wide games. As Edwards noted later in a BBC interview: “In that wing position, absolute concentration throughout the game (essential); and if you lose that concentration against world-class opposition, you only have to lose it for a split second and they will punish you.”
Like Edwards, Ireland’s Felix Jones tends to defend wide channels by attacking space rather than trying to cover it more passively, and felt forced to leave his role in Borthwick’s coaching staff after just six months in the job.
Instead of Edwards or Jones, Borthwick has turned to Joe El-Abd and now Richard Wigglesworth, who do not yet have the same pedigree as defensive coaches in the elite game but could be more malleable components in the overall system. At the same time, the chance to develop a more aggressive wide defense that existed later in 2024, which has already “helped (England) move from a defense ranked fourth or fifth in the world to first or second, (seeing) a huge improvement” – according to Northampton fullback George Furbank – probably lost during one sudden departure, another prevented arrival.
If you want to win the World Cup, you need an elite defensive mind to do it. England had Phil Larder when they lifted the ‘Bill’ for the one and only time Australia in 2003, while Australia enjoyed the services of second-tier John Muggleton when they last won the Blue Riband tournament 27 years ago. Both nations have everything to prove on the D this November, and that remains the case after England’s emphatic 45-22 triumph over the Wallabies on Sunday.
The acid test for the men in white will be the final round match against All black people on the 21stst November. The Wallabies need to find a more immediate solution to their off-the-ball woes after conceding an average of seven tries and 46 points per game in each of their last three matches.
Recently RugbyPass analysis of Canada’s defense against England’s all-conquering Red Roses in the women’s game explored how using a half-scrum in the line rather than in the ‘boot space’ behind it enabled Canada build more aggression and achieve better results than The Australians had a double header in the Bledisloe Cup.
The game at Twickenham added another chapter to that story. One of the many quirks in defensive design introduced by Kiwi Scott McLeod orbits around the roles of scrum-half and blindside winger in line defence. The nine, Ryan Lonergan, starts in the tram lines according to accepted modern practice, but the blind winger defends in the 10 channel anywhere from halfway.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 23, 2026
In this example from the first match of a two-game series between Argentina and Australia, blindside wing Max Jorgensen was plugged into the 10 channel and went to Lonergan to cover the backfield where Jorgensen would normally be stationed. In this case Brumbies The scrum-half is scrambling to cover the kick Cougars and denied the attempt by the skin of his teeth.
England used Jorgesen’s position in the line twice over the weekend, starting with the first line-up of the game.
https://t.co/Iw38u9dnnI
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 9, 2026
England are looking to score two goals in the first four games to exploit flaws in the system. At 1:03 of the third period, they beat Lonergan close to a touchdown on the run of big Ollie Chessum, on the next play they force Ben Earl straight on Jorgensen, and Jamie George brings him down in a cleanup to ensure he can play no part in the quarterback’s defense on the next play.
With Dylan Meredith (in white hat) on the wrong side of the pitch, England essentially attack a thin forward line and an empty backline with the ball in the hands of one of the best breakers on planet rugby, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Another example in 57th the minute was even clearer.
https://t.co/rDvrzZjPYW
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 9, 2026
Tom Wright and Ben Donaldson arrive too late to affect a cross from Henry Slade, and with Lonergan dropping straight back from the tram on the right, Jorgensen is left to follow all the way back from the 10 channel in cover as the only realistic chance of stopping makeshift wing Henry Pollock scoring near the corner flag on the left. There is no effective pendulum in the background and the confusion of roles is something to see.
Rumors that Edwards busted a flush that brings out-of-date ideas are exaggerated. Over the course of two decades, Edwards proved able to adapt to changes when answers to his systems were found. Rugby is a constant dialogue between attack and defence, and he was always a superb conversationalist. Forget what France can say now he’s gone. Edwards has helped Les Bleus to three Six Nations titles since 2020, a 14-game winning streak and, briefly, to world number one in 2022. Be thankful he ever arrived on your doorstep.
‘Offense wins you games, defense wins you titles’ is one of the oldest proverbs in sports. If that holds true, then England and Australia have a long way to go before they can be considered bona fide contenders for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
The Wallabies were too porous and England overlooked two of the best defensive minds in the game. Only time will tell if Borthwick made the right call.
