Four sevens, three 10s, two locks and one centre. Cracking the Steve Borthwick selection code is getting tougher and tougher. The England head coach is a rather more radical selector than might first appear but it was still with a heavy thud of surprise that his matchday 23 to face Wales on the final Six Nations weekend landed on Wednesday afternoon. A first international start at 13 for Tommy Freeman; a full debut for Tom Roebuck on the wing; a recall for Marcus Smith. So much for cohesion and continuity.
It says a lot about England’s stock of centres that such a radical reshuffle is required because of a single injury. It is not so much a lack of options but their ilk; England are long on players of potential at the position but none, currently, can match what Ollie Lawrence offers in terms of carrying prowess and go-forward.
And so it must be a makeshift midfield, with Freeman redeployed to compensate for Lawrence’s absence, and Roebuck – powerful, quick, aerially excellent – a like-for-like replacement for the relocated right wing. More intriguingly is the lack of cover on the bench, with Henry Slade again left out entirely for solely selection reasons: should injury strike, it would be Ben Earl as option one, and Fin Smith as option two.
“There is no doubt we need to build depth at centre,” Borthwick explained. “I feel that now is the right time to build options as we look ahead. There are always a number of factors in selection and thought the balance was right with Tommy in that position this week.
“Right now, Ben Earl will be the person covering that, given that versatility. Everyone can see what a standout defender Fin Smith is. I see a position at some point in time, where I think he’d be able to be a 10-12 for us as well.”
Centre has long been a problem position for England, with a paucity of options exacerbated by the absence of safety blanket Owen Farrell. Lawrence’s emergence came at the right time to compensate for the loss of Manu Tuilagi’s thrust but even he is not a fulcrum centre of the type that most of the world’s top sides are building. The Damian de Allende, Sione Tuipulotu, Bundee Aki – to name just three – archetype is not one that English rugby seems to be producing, limiting the ways in which their attack can be structured.
Borthwick has long liked the options that Freeman could, in time, present in midfield. His move in is aided by the entirety of the inside backs being, like he, Northampton drawn – Freeman ran regularly at outside centre at the start of last season. With the chance to become only the second player to score in every match in a Six Nations campaign, a feat that Louis Bielle-Biarrey could match later on Saturday, an exciting opportunity presents itself.
“With his athleticism that he has, the ground he covers and the power he brings in the carry, he has always been that option,” his head coach suggested. “Now he has grown over the last 18 months, he’s grown to be a formidable Test player. He’s played a lot of Tests now, and we have moved him to 13. I’m excited for the first time to actually start him there this week.”
There is a larger point to consider here about whether a union of such resources should be in a situation where their cover at a specialist position are two such radical options. Some international coaches believe that the days of hyper-specialism will soon be confined to the past as the lines between certain backs and forwards blur and seven/one bench splits become commonplace – yet it still feels peculiar that England have put themselves in this predicament.
To go to a Cardiff cauldron with a shot at the Six Nations title and name what is, in essence an experimental side feels bold, but there is greater coherence to the selection than instantly strikes. Over the last year or so, Borthwick has sought to evolve his side around a few key tenets, all of which are evident within these team.
The first of these, underlined again on Wednesday, is to play with pace and ambition, striking fast in transition. The second is having a mobile pack of forwards capable of offering real threat at the breakdown. The third, and sometimes least popular, is to retain the kick contesting success that has been a key factor in some of England’s biggest wins in the Borthwick era.
Looking through the 23, each element is preserved. The playmaking partnership of Fin and Marcus Smith gets another go, with George Ford providing an extra option on the bench and Elliot Daly further creativity on the wing. The quartet will ensure the kicking game remains strong, with Daly’s left boot useful; he and Roebuck’s aerial strength will be used offensively as well as to defuse Gareth Anscombe’s high bombs that have been a hallmark of the Matt Sherratt interregnum so far.
And then there are the scavenging quartet, bolstered by an exciting debutant in Henry Pollock, high on potential and self-belief. Wales have two pretty fine exponents of their own in Jac Morgan and Tommy Reffell – expect the breakdown battle to be brutal. Such is its importance that Borthwick has been prepared to go light at lock, with Tom Willis and Chandler Cunningham-South providing far from proven cover. Second row is again a position of real concern for the future.
An unnecessary gamble it may feel in such a high-stakes week, but one cannot accuse Borthwick of being anything other than bold and forward-thinking both in this campaign and beyond. “At the start of the tournament, our aim was to win the tournament,” the head coach stressed, though conceding that the fortunes of France and thus the destiny of the title was out of their hands.
“That’s always been the way we want to go and that’s not changed. The team’s really clear on what we need to do to put ourselves in that position. Every England supporter would be expecting to be saying that’s what we aim to do. We want to do it by playing the way that we want play, by playing fast, by getting the ball to our players with strength and pace and athleticism. That’s exactly how we want to play this week.”
England XV to face Wales in Cardiff (Saturday 15 March, 4.45pm GMT): 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Will Stuart; 4 Maro Itoje (capt.), 5 Ollie Chessum; 6 Tom Curry, 7 Ben Curry, 8 Ben Earl; 9 Alex Mitchell, 10 Fin Smith; 11 Elliot Daly, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 13 Tommy Freeman, 14 Tom Roebuck; 15 Marcus Smith.
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Chandler Cunningham-South, 20 Henry Pollock, 21 Tom Willis; 22 Jack van Poortvliet, 23 George Ford.
