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Ford is key to England getting fans back onside
Evening Standard
|February 09, 2024
No10 can bring out X Factor in team-mates to banish the memory of last season’s boos
THE class of 2024 staged an England's Got Talent night at their recent training camp-but now Steve Borthwick's men must bring the X Factor to Twickenham.
Leicester double-act Ollie Chessum and Freddie Steward are England's latest answer to Ant and Dec, as the squad's new social secretaries.
The talent show helped a new group of players let off steam as well as form tighter bonds, even if some of the acts "got a bit weird", according to captain Jamie George.
Head coach Borthwick will judge his players all he likes, but the Twickenham crowd will always have the final say.
England were booed off the pitch the last time they played at HQ, in the 30-22 defeat by Fiji in August's final World Cup warm-up match.
Borthwick's side had previously suffered their record Twickenham defeat in last year's Six Nations, being ravaged 53-10 by France in March.
Go back to the end of 2022, and home defeats by Argentina and South Africa cost Eddie Jones his job. England's fans could not identify with their team, and the Red Rose men did not even recognise themselves, either.
Borthwick's side exorcised some demons by gaining revenge over both Argentina and Fiji at the World Cup, then so nearly toppled eventual champions South Africa in the semi-finals.
This story is from the February 09, 2024 edition of Evening Standard.
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