London (AFP) - England coach Steve Borthwick has been given the unequivocal backing of his bosses at the Rugby Football Union to lead the side at the 2027 World Cup regardless of results between now and next year’s global showpiece in Australia.

Two months ago, the RFU extended Borthwick’s contract until after the 2028 Six Nations even though this year’s edition saw England lose four out of five matches in a single Championship for the first time in the tournament’s history.

Victories over Fiji and Argentina during the July leg of the inaugural Nations Championship, after a comprehensive defeat by world champions South Africa, bolstered Borthwick’s position.

England, however head into Sunday’s match against Australia at Twickenham – their opening game of the European-based section of the new tournament – having lost five of their last seven Tests.

Four years ago, Borthwick’s predecessor Eddie Jones was sacked at the end of an autumn campaign that produced one win in four Tests, but RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said on Wednesday there was no prospect of the former England captain suffering a similar fate.

“We’re committed to Steve,” said Sweeney, who made the decision to ditch Jones in 2022.

“We believe in what he’s doing. We had a difficult Six Nations this year, we accept that, but we just want to see continued progress and we’re backing him to get that done.”

- ‘Focused’ -

England’s four defeats in the Six Nations included their first loss to Italy but Sweeney still decided to extend Borthwick’s contract by several months after his current deal was originally set to run out following the end of the World Cup.

“We wanted our coaching team to be focused just on the World Cup, not be thinking ‘Oh, I don’t have a role lined up’ and be thinking about that in the build-up,” Sweeney said.

“It was to take away any distraction around that and transition the same coaching team into the 2028 Six Nations. That was the sole intention.”

England, whose lone men’s World Cup title came in the 2003 final, hope to have Fin Smith fit for this weekend’s match against the Wallabies.

The fly-half has been nursing a calf injury but came through Wednesday’s training session.

“Fin trained today and got through all right,” said England defence coach Richard Wigglesworth.

“We’ll need to see what the next 24 hours are like in terms of his reaction but he did well today.”

England face Australia, Japan and New Zealand in Nations Championship matches this month.

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