The Breakdown | Itoje’s and Smith’s on-field spat sums up England’s startling identity crisis

Steve Borthwick’s captain is normally cool under pressure, but rare outburst points to a much bigger problem

Martin Johnson, England’s World-Cup winning skipper, believes there is no huge mystery to being a great captain. “If you haven’t got a good team it doesn’t matter how good a captain you are,” he said on the Rugby Legends podcast before the start of this year’s Six Nations. And if anyone is qualified to provide such a definitive judgment it is unquestionably him.

To suggest that calm, sure-footed leadership is irrelevant in top-level sport, however, is another matter. Even the greatest sides need decisive, intelligent direction, regardless of who supplies it. The other imperative is to have everyone pulling in the same direction. Shared responsibility and collective ownership are everything, particularly in rugby where the all-for-one, one-for-all ethos is fundamental.