We bring you our England Six Nations preview ahead of the 2025 Six Nations Championship. Can the English rediscover their winning ways and cause a shock in a Lions year?
After a promising showing at the 2023 Rugby World Cup (third place), England had hoped that 2024 would be the year that Steve Borthwick’s side pushed on and ended the dominance of the big four. However, a record of 12 matches played, five wins, and seven losses tells a story of underperformance, with questions still lingering about the way forward.
The main theme of England’s year was tight, nerve-jangling matches. Apart from two blowouts (52-17 and 59-14 versus Eddie Jones’ Japan) the rest of their games were all decided by single-figure margins. Their wins in the 2024 Six Nations came by margins of just three points (Italy), two points (Wales) and one point (Ireland), while their summer and autumn campaigns were tales of what could have been.
Late and narrow losses against New Zealand (three times), Australia and South Africa will have left scars on the players, coaches and fans alike. This year, they must regain the ability to close out matches and secure victories.
When looking solely at results against other Six Nations sides and teams from the current Rugby Championship, England’s average result margin in 2024 was just 4.1 points. Never before in the professional era have they had a year with such close games.
Playing Style
England’s gameplan remains a work in progress, and although they stayed committed to their approach, their inability to decide whether to stick or twist often proved costly in 2024.
In the Six Nations 2024, England decided to move the ball wide less (7.8%) than any other side. Meanwhile, 11% of the time their playmaker option was to put boot to ball, the highest rate of any team.
The gainline was also a core focus for England last year; their success rate of 62% in the 2024 Six Nations was significantly better than that of other teams.
Strengths and Weaknesses
In the 2024 Six Nations, England trailed at half-time in all of their five matches, marking the first time they’ve been behind at the break in every game of a campaign since 1974. However, they still won three of those matches – no side has ever won as many fixtures in which they trailed at half-time in an edition of the Championship.
The attacking intent is there – no side averaged more 22 entries per game (9.6) than them in the 2024 Championship. But their strike rate remains poor: 2.1 points per entry was the lowest of any side.
At the 2024 Six Nations, England once again had the best success rate at the lineout (91%), something they also managed in 2023 (92%). Former captain Jamie George remains a reliable presence in this area, meaning there’s one less aspect of their game to worry about.
However, for the second year in a row, England had the poorest goal-kicking success rate (67%, 62% in 2023) of any side in the Six Nations. With so many games being decided by fine margins, this shortcoming can prove extremely costly.
Defensively, England made more dominant tackles (66) than any other side in the 2024 Championship. However, this focus on delivering ‘big hits’ negatively impacted their overall tackle success rate, which stood at 84%—the lowest of any team. Another factor at play here is England’s Felix Jones-inspired blitz defence is high risk, high reward. Whether that defensive style is carried on beyond Jones’ curtailed tenure as defence coach is yet to be seen.
Star Players
Ben Earl and new skipper Maro Itoje played every minute (960) of every game for England in 2024. Among the backs, Tommy Freeman (943) and Henry Slade (877) accrued the most game time, but it’s the third player on that list, Ollie Lawrence (792), who emerges as our first star to watch.
The Bath centre has become a crucial player in England’s midfield, adding heft in both attack and defence, ably filling the void left by Manu Tuilagi. Operating at both 12 and 13, his versatility and talent to both get over the gainline (64%) and bring teammates into play with his silky passing make him a real asset outside Marcus Smith.
Another strength of is winning turnovers – his tally of five in 2024 was more than any other England back – and making big hits. Only Tommy Freeman (17) made more dominant tackles than Lawrence (7) in England’s backline.
In the forwards, there is a clear changing of the guard in the front row, which you can read about below.
Away from that most mysterious areas ofthe scrum though, Borthwick has generally favoured hard-hitting giants. The likes of Chandler Cunningham-South, Sam Underhill, Ollie Chessum and George Martin all bring enough physicality to keep any nightclub safe on a busy weekend.
Chessum (2.2) and Martin (1.7) notched up more dominant tackles per 80 minutes than anyone else to play 180 minutes for England in 2024. Chandler-Cunningham South meanwhile had the best dominant carry rate (49%) of any England forward and (the injured) Underhill won twice as many jackals (6) as any teammate.
Can England Win the Six Nations?
England have won the Six Nations more often than any other side (7 times), however the last of these triumphs was back in 2020. The Opta supercomputer has England’s most likely finishing position as 4th. They’re given a 2% chance of winning the whole thing and a 0.5% chance of doing the Grand Slam.
England Six Nations Fixtures
Round One: 31 January – 1 February
Ireland vs England – Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Round Two: 8-9 February
England vs France – Twickenham, London
Round Three: 22-23 February
England vs Scotland – Twickenham, London
Round Four: 8-9 March
England vs Italy – Twickenham, London
Round Five: 15 March
Wales vs England – Principality Stadium, Cardiff
England Six Nations Squad
Forwards: Fin Baxter, Ollie Chessum, Arthur Clark, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Maro Itoje, Curtis Langdon, George Martin, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Henry Pollock, Bevan Rodd, Will Stuart, Tom Willis.
Backs: Oscar Beard, Elliot Daly, Fraser Dingwall, George Ford, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Mitchell, Cadan Murley, Raffi Quirke, Harry Randall, Tom Roebuck, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward.
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