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Jonny May is backing Steve Borthwick to crack the code of rugby after describing England\u2019s head coach as a \u201cgenius\u201d in the mold of Alan Turing and Mr Spock.<\/p>\n
England went out on their shields in Saturday\u2019s World Cup semi-final defeat by South Africa, losing 16-15 to a late Handre Pollard penalty, having dominated the reigning champions until the final quarter.<\/p>\n
A heroic performance was the culmination of Borthwick\u2019s opening 10 months in charge, having been parachuted in with the short-term objective of making the team competitive at France 2023.<\/p>\n
He succeeded by devising a statistics-based approach that almost dethroned the world champions, leaving May to conclude England are in the best possible hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see what a genius Steve is in terms of how he\u2019s starting to get this team going,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou won\u2019t find a harder working man than Steve and his approach to the game is a little bit like Alan Turing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody is going to crack the code to rugby it will be Steve \u2013 he\u2019s getting ever closer each week and good luck to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got an analytical brain and an evidence-based, scientific, Spock-like approach to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot from him. I\u2019ve\u00a0been\u00a0very grateful\u00a0for all the coaches\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had throughout my career and I\u2019ve\u00a0absorbed everything I\u00a0possibly can, always trying to learn and be curious.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Steve, with his ways,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0on to something. He\u2019s a young coach and has this unique and different way that he goes about the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cCracking it is not something I\u2019m interested in doing as the game gets more complicated each week, but he\u2019s obsessed with it so hats off to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
While England can look ahead with optimism, May strongly suspects that their future does not include him.<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s second-highest try scorer of all-time behind Rory Underwood will almost certainly have played his last Test at this World Cup, Friday\u2019s bronze match against Argentina his final opportunity to pull on a Red Rose jersey.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old wing was only called up to Borthwick\u2019s squad because of an injury to Anthony Watson, yet he has been a regular starter and was outstanding against South Africa, even winning a jackal penalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever say never, but very much in my head now I\u2019m thinking, more than likely that I\u2019ll be done after this,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor\u00a0me\u00a0no\u00a0regrets, what a journey, I\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0even going to be on the plane at one point.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I stuck in there and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the attitude across the team \u2013 we stick in there, we\u2019ve had pretty much everything\u00a0thrown at us, but\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0starting to find ourselves.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been everything to me, playing for England, just absolutely everything<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0grateful to have been a part of it and although it\u00a0probably\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0continue after this World Cup, I feel like\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0connected to this team. It\u2019s\u00a0making my\u00a0hairs\u00a0stand up\u00a0now a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be connected like that, to be close to the boys and have those relationships, to go through these times with these friends of mine, is incredibly important to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been everything to me, playing for England, just absolutely everything.\u201d<\/p>\n