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Steve Borthwick was due to hold his first meeting with the full England squad on Monday night and deliver a stark message about the vital importance of seizing the moment. ‘No regrets’.

The new head coach of the national team revealed at the Six Nations launch in London that he is desperate for his players to avoid the nagging, what-if thoughts which have stalked him since his days as England captain. 

Borthwick admitted that he would like to turn back time and have another shot at his on-field career, but the 43-year-old successor to Eddie Jones hopes that the men he is now in charge of don’t feel the same when they retire.

‘I care deeply about my players,’ he said, at the grand event opposite the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. 

‘I want them to be the best version of themselves. As a player, I was privileged to play 57 times for England. I had the great honour of captaining my country on 21 occasions. Now I look back at a lot of that time and I regret a lot of the things I didn’t do.

‘Did I ever give the very best account of myself? I’m not sure I ever did. Maybe I tried too hard. Would I like to rewind the clock and try to do it again? Yeah, I would. I wish I could go back to when I captained England and I could go back to that day when I made my debut. I wish I could go through those experiences again and try to be even better. I can’t, unfortunately, because I’m old and can’t do it, as Owen (Farrell, sat alongside) keeps reminding me!

‘As a coach, I want to help these young guys not make the mistakes I made. When they’re old and have no hair like me, I want them to not have regrets. I don’t want them looking back thinking “I wish I’d done that”. Let’s do it.’

It is abundantly from the first month of his tenure as Red Rose head coach that Borthwick

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