Underhill so impressed by England’s improvement
Sam Underhill is a decent barometer of England’s progress in the last 12 months having watched them from in and outside the camp over the last year.
The Bath flanker did not make Steve Borthwick’s World Cup squad but was called up when Jack Willis was injured and was stunned at the progress the side had made.
Underhill played once at France 2023, when he turned in a man of the match performance in the third-place play-off against Argentina and sensed England were on the up then.
He started all five of England’s Six Nations games, plus the Tests against Japan and the two against New Zealand on tour, and insists things can only get better in the lead up to the World Cup in Australia 2027.
“I was part of the initial World Cup squad, then wasn’t part of it for a while, then coming in and seeing how, in the time I had been away, the team had developed was impressive,” said the 27-year-old.
“Then being part of the Six Nations, seeing a team without a few characters that had been in that team for a long time, there were a lot of spots to fill and shoes to fill especially in leadership roles in that team. So, seeing how younger guys have taken that on, has been impressive, and some of the older guys. We are continually adapting and hopefully getting better.”
The older characters Underhill referenced are the like of Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell, Courtney Lawes and Jonny May who have been key to England over the last decade and more.
But there are new kids on the block such as Harlequins flanker Chandler Cunningham-South, Exeter wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Quins prop Fin Baxter, who got an early baptism of fire coming off the bench for his debut early against New Zealand in Dunedin.
And scrum coach Tom Harrison earmarked Baxter, below, the baby-faced 22-year-old loosehead, to be the man to carry England’s pack when the likes of Joe Marler and Dan Cole wave goodbye.
Harrison said: “He’s come through the pathway and works really hard at his game with Adam Jones at Harlequins and Joe Marler. He’s someone we’ve been tracking for a while.
“I think every player in our squad will say that coming to New Zealand is not easy. Getting your first cap against New Zealand away from home when you come on within 20 minutes of the game kicking off, and he just took it in his stride. Even on the side of the pitch when I’m telling him to go on, he’s repeating to me the three things he needs to do. He just takes it in stride and I’m stood there like ‘Wow.’ As a young man I’ve been very impressed with him.”
