RFU ready to battle Bristol over Borthwick compensation

England rugby chiefs are ready to play hard-ball over their refusal to pay Bristol “millions” in compensation for Steve Borthwick, whose appointment as Eddie Jones’s new forwards coach was announced yesterday.

Standard Sport understands the Rugby Football Union are ready to go to court over Borthwick’s contract, with Bristol having made what Twickenham officials believe is an outrageously high demand for the former Saracens and England captain’s services.

While the RFU are being portrayed as having stumbled naively into this potentially damaging row, they claim they have been negotiating with Bristol “for weeks” in a bid to agree terms. The Union have been prepared to pay a substantial six-figure sum to secure Borthwick, whose recently-signed 18-month deal with the Championship club is worth less than £250,000, even offering a job-share solution until the end of the season.

The RFU are understood to have offered north of £600,000 in compensation, while Bristol have countered that the richest Union in the world should be offering “millions” in compensation in case they do not get promotion to the Aviva Premiership without Borthwick coaching the forwards.

Given that Bristol have failed to gain promotion in the last two seasons despite huge investment from billionaire owner Steve Lansdown, that appears to be putting an incredible value on the former England captain, who was new head coach Jones’s forwards coach with Japan in the recent World Cup.

RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie has been leading the negotiations but has found it impossible to broker an agreement. The RFU are still hopeful of reaching a deal but are prepared to go to court if needs be, confident the compensation offers already made would give them a strong case.