PAUL REES CONSIDERS THE OPTIONS AS ENGLAND’S HEAD COACH GETS READY TO ANNOUNCE WORLD CUP SQUAD TOMORROW
STEVE Borthwick has never been one for the spotlight, but the glare will be on him this week and for the next few months. The England head coach tomorrow announces his World Cup squad after just one of the four warm-up games arranged before the tournament.
Borthwick’s move makes sense. Coaches today tend to take as much from training as from matches, particularly when it comes to attitude, fitting into the squad and adapting to a different regime. Players who are automatic choices for their clubs find themselves second or third choice and their reaction is a factor behind selection.
Borthwick will be sure about his strongest team, but it is the final selections in the 33 that can make the difference, as is always highlighted by the Lions. Some of those chosen may only feature in the World Cup from the bench or have their only start against the lowest ranked team in the pool, Chile, but a successful campaign will hinge as much on them as those in the front line.
Morale is a key ingredient. Sappers, as those who put personal disappointment ahead of the needs of the squad are called, drag it down. It is why the final names filled in by Borthwick and his coaches matter as much as his generals, Owen Farrell, Ellis Genge and Maro Itoje. It is the whole that matters.
Borthwick is telling eight players this weekend that they will not be going to France, although they may later get an opportunity as injury cover. The team he picked to take on Wales in Cardiff yesterday contained five players who took the field in England’s last match, against Ireland in Dublin.
Of those, only Freddie Steward and Ellis Genge, who captained the side, looked nailed on for the World Cup. Dave Ribbans is in the probable category but Alex Dombrandt and Lewis Ludlam are in a position, the back row, where it comes down not just to form or system requirements but whether versatility will be highly valued.
It is likely that many of the eight left out will have started at the Principality Stadium. The combined caps came to 299, 135 of which belonged to Danny Care and Genge. Tom Pearson made his Test debut and it was George Martin’s second appearance. Four of the forwards had 12 caps between them while on the bench Theo Dan and Tom Willis were braced for their first international appearances and Bevan Rodd his third.
England’s new backs coach Richard Wigglesworth, who like Kevin Sinfield and Alex Walters, followed Borthwick from Leicester to England, said that yesterday’s match did not amount to a last chance saloon for players, but some will fall at the last hurdle before France: they have to because of numbers.
“Decisions made after the game are not all around the match,” he said. “We have done our best as a coaching team to make sure the training camp has not been about selection but preparing as best we can for France. I have been in the position of the players and it will be at the back or front of their minds, but last week was all about preparing for Wales.”
“Borthwick has to tell eight players this weekend that they will not be going to France”
Then there is England’s style of play. Most of the players had at the start of the summer experience of working with Borthwick, whether with England or Leicester. He was involved in the last World Cup campaign and his coaching career has resembled his playing days with Saracens the emphasis on preparation, attention to detail and camaraderie.
“We will play the best way for us to win Test matches,” said Wigglesworth. “It will be good to watch if England win.” There will be no frolics, but if England are to make it all the way again they will need to show a ball winning capacity that has largely been missing since the end of 2020.
“Any England team must be physical,” said Max Malins, below left, the wing who has swapped Saracens for Bristol. “That starts with the forwards and making sure we have a physical set-piece and in the battle up front. What we are layering in is the best attack, making sure we attack space when there are opportunities.
“We have been very clear on how we want to attack, what our strengths are and how we can play to them. I’ve been really impressed with Richard Wigglesworth’s work in making things clear in terms of where the opportunities lie to make sure we can play to our strengths.
“England wants to have its own identity. When you have players who come from lots of different clubs with their own way of playing and their own systems, trying to take little bits from everywhere is going to be confusing. It is good we know how England want to play so we can all buy into it.”
What are England’s strengths?
The team chosen against Wales yesterday will little resemble the one that faces Argentina in their World Cup opener, both in terms of personnel and style. Danny Care and Marcus Smith are an attacking pair of half-backs and there is an emphasis on mobility at forward.
Smith and Care are an established half-back pairing but in terms of the training squad look third out of three in their pecking orders: Care has Ben Youngs and Jack van Poortvliet ahead of him at scrum-half while Smith has to contend with England’s captain Owen Farrell at outside-half and the fit again George Ford, the player he supplanted in 2021.
That was under the watch of Eddie Jones who was convinced then, given the way law changes were impacting the game, that defence would not be enough in the World
Cup. Leicester won the title two seasons ago under Borthwick with Ford at 10 and the fact the 81-cap veteran of two World Cups was on the bench yesterday seemed telling.
Ford has not started a Test for England since March 2021. He was on the bench throughout the 2022 Six Nations and only saw 29 minutes of action but Borthwick does not need to give him an audition. The question is whether he takes three outside-halves to France or just two.
Farrell could be named as a centre, covering outside-half from there, but that looks unlikely with Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence ball-carrying options at 12. Ford is, like Farrell, reliable and reads a game. With so much new about the England set-up, his experience will be drawn on.
It will depend on how Borthwick splits his 33 in terms of backs and forwards. A 14-19 division would give him the option of selecting three outside-halves and three scrum-halves: it would place an emphasis on versatility in the back three, but Freddie Steward, Elliot
Daly, Anthony Watson, Max Malins and Henry Arundell all have experience of playing at full-back and on the wing, unlike Joe Cokanasiga, Jonny May and Cadan Murley. Daly, left, has also been capped in the centre and his presence, along with Farrell’s, would give Borthwick the scope to choose just three specialist midfielders, Tuilagi, Lawrence and Henry Slade, leaving Joe Marchant and Guy Porter as injury cover. Or Borthwick may decide that with France a short hop away he can get away with just two options at 9 and 10, but if Smith and Care were sacrificed, it would restrict England tactically That said, if they go, they would both need to be in the match-day 23 for that reason unless Borthwick was confident he did not need a Plan B.
Looking at yesterday’s 23, there seemed to be a number of either/ ors. Jamie Blamire started at hooker with Theo Dan on the bench, but will both go to France? The same at No.8 where Alex Dombrandt was covered by Tom Willis and second row where the versatile George Martin started with Jonny Hill, overlooked for the Six Nations, among the replacements.
In 2019, Jones went to Japan with two scrum-halves and suffered when Willi Heinz’s injury meant a call up for Ben Spencer at the start of the week of the final against South Africa. He also opted for only two tighthead props and Dan Cole found himself having to play virtually all the final after Kyle Sinckler’s departure in the opening minutes.
Paris is somewhat closer than Tokyo. Borthwick was a player in 2007, the other time the World Cup was held in France. Squads then, in the days of seven replacements with only one having to cover prop, were limited to 30 players, later increased to 31, the number in the last World Cup.
Three hookers were taken, but Lee Mears only made one appearance from the bench. The four props included Matt Stevens, who could operate on both sides of the scrum, and three scrum-halves were picked: Shaun Perry played in the first two matches but did not feature afterwards. Two outside-halves were named, with Mike Catt covering the position from the centre.
England were then, as now, not fancied to make an impact. They had changed head coaches the year before and had finished third in the Six Nations after losing heavily in Dublin and then in Cardiff to a Wales team facing a whitewash.
When they followed up a laboured opening victory against the United States with a 36-0 defeat to South Africa in Paris, an early trip home beckoned with matches against Samoa and Tonga to follow. They found strength in adversity, overcame Australia in the quarter-final and hosts France in the last four. The holders found themselves in the final.
Will history repeat itself ? England may find themselves confronting Australia in the quarter-final again at the same venue in Marseille if one tops their pool and the other finishes second. A win could set up a semi-final date with France and the prospect of another last night tango with South Africa in Paris. There is a long way to go before then, but World Cups are often self-contained with form not always a reliable barometer, as New Zealand have so often found out, not least in Cardiff in 2007. Momentum is the driver.
“England start some way behind the top four in the world but look the best of the rest”
“No one was talking about selection as we approached the matches before the World Cup,” said Daly, who has not appeared for England since the end of the 2022 Six Nations. “It is about getting better every day, small things pushing the team forward and taking us to the first game.
“It is always a competitive environment but a difference now is that everyone is pulling towards the same goal for the team. There is always someone to bring you through and that is what the best teams are like. You look at it in a different light when you have been out, taking it in and realising how lucky you are.”
Most of the players not involved yesterday will make the 33. Murley is an exception having found himself in a revolving door all summer. Jonny May is another, a specialist wing who may fall victim to Borthwick’s preference for a back three made up of players who have regular experience of playing at full-back.
With all teams armed with a kicking game, receiving and returning, whether in kind or on the counterattack, will be crucial. Kicking is where Ford scores over Smith, although Care largely bears that onus when they play for Harlequins. Do they come as a pair, either both included or neither?
Borthwick indicated at the team announcement last week that he will take six half-backs, which would leave Farrell covering the midfield, although he would hardly say before a match they were starting that Smith and Care were on the margins.
Borthwick’s reputation for a conservative default made Smith’s place look precarious, but he brought Freddie Burns to Leicester and then Chris Ashton. He has also never been afraid to give youth a fling, but at a time of retrenchment for England does he play it relatively safe, even though he virtually has a free pass this World Cup given that the RFU’s intention was that he should take over from Jones after it? He seems to prefer having options.
It is what made Tom Pearson’s start in Cardiff yesterday interesting. The Northampton flanker was first called up by Jones without winning a cap having impressed from the start of his career at London Irish. He has seen off the challenge of Sam Underhill, who started the 2019 final having made a big impact in the World Cup.
Underhill has been dogged by head injuries since then, but letting him go was a big call by Borthwick. With Tom Curry the first choice openside, it will come down to Pearson and Ben Earl, who was first capped two matches into the 2020 Six Nations, for the other slot.
Earl has been consistently good for Saracens, but he fell out of favour with Jones for reasons that were never made clear. Lewis Ludlam plays on the openside for Northampton but has the advantage of being able to play across the back row – he was on the blindside yesterday – while Curry has started at No.8 for England.
Will Courtney Lawes, and George Martin, be chosen as a flanker who can cover lock or the reverse? The answer will influence the number of back rowers taken, five or six. Jack Willis and Billy Vunipola, now fit again, look certainties, leaving Ludlam, Earl, Pearson, Dombrandt and Tom Willis waiting to be summoned from the queue.
“Most of the 33 are pretty clear,” said Borthwick after naming his team to face Wales. “There are one or two places written in pencil which need to be written in pen. There is a need to be able to adapt and that makes position flexibility incredibly valuable. We have kept our squad quite tight between each of our camps in terms of numbers.”
The England squad was addressed last week by the England football manager Gareth Southgate, who had previously been called on by Jones. Fresh voices and a perspective from outside the rugby bubble is something Borthwick has carried on from his predecessor, something else that suggests a lack of rigidity.
England are starting some way behind the top four in the world rankings, but they look the best of the rest with Australia having failed to achieve a bounce since Jones’s return, Wales shedding a layer of skin and Scotland finding themselves in a pig of a group having failed to qualify for the 2019 knock-out stage.
Argentina look closest to England having won in Australia last month and coming within a point of South Africa in Johannesburg, but they lack the foundations of old.
England’s side of the World Cup draw is made up of tier one teams who have all changed drivers since the start of last year after veering off course. It is not just about getting the engine running but getting it into gear and hitting the accelerator. Power and pace.
