As Steve Borthwick gets ready to announce his 36-man squad for the resumption of the Nations Championship on Sunday, we look at the big questions facing the England head coach with less than a year to go before the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Have Courtney Lawes and Joe Marchant done enough to be recalled?
These two high-quality operators are back home, at Sale Sharks, after spells in France. But will Borthwick pick them among the 11 players he needs to add to the core of 25 who are on England’s “enhanced” contracts?
I took a first-hand look at the 37-year-old Lawes when Sale lost at home to Glasgow last Saturday, and it was difficult on that 55-minute display to go crazy for his inclusion. Some familiar skills were on show – sniffing turnovers, securing line-outs – but those bandaged, bandy legs weren’t getting him round the field as quickly as of old.
Marchant made a spectacular chase and catch of a George Ford bomb and scurried hard in defence, to make you weep for the three years the and 2023 World Cup stalwart was off limits in Paris, due to England’s controversial selection policy.
Borthwick could restore them both ahead of Greg Fisilau and Tobias Elliott, who attended last month’s England training camp, with Alex Coles, George Martin, Ollie Chessum and Guy Pepper as possible big No 6s, and Seb Atkinson, Henry Slade and Benhard Janse van Rensburg in the midfield.
Is Maro Itoje an automatic starter?
It was sacrilege to question the Saracen’s place at one time, but now worth considering at least a little rotation to give the likes of injury-prone George Martin valuable Test exposure, while hammering home the need to cut out ridiculous penalties. Itoje took a well-earned rest during the summer, but he is set to regain the England captaincy.
Have England settled on a style to beat the world?
When England last took the field, for the 31-24 win in Argentina in mid-July, it contained everything that is promising about Borthwick’s team: a solid scrum anchored by Joe Heyes, impactful carries by Ollie Chessum, Ellis Genge, Ben Earl and Manny Feyi-Waboso, and an intuitive understanding between fly-half Fin Smith and Tommy Freeman, in his best position on the wing.
But there is also the maddening tendency for lost collisions and rucks to build into stretched defence and those pesky penalties and yellow cards. Australia, Japan and New Zealand will test all this afresh at Twickenham.
Is this England’s strongest squad since the 2023 World Cup?
While back-rowers Jack and Tom Willis are among a group of internationals still off limits in the Top 14, Borthwick will surely be delighted to see Harlequins’ loosehead prop Fin Baxter returning from a 10-month lay-off this weekend. Martin, Bath tighthead Will Stuart, Exeter Chiefs wing Feyi-Waboso, Quins full-back George Furbank and Sale’s Ben Curry are likewise all available after not playing in last season’s Six Nations.
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In the back three, George Hendy, Joe Carpenter and George Barton are pushing the incumbents for their places. But there is a doubt over recent recruit Janse van Rensburg, who was taken off after heavy head knocks against Argentina in July and Northampton three weeks ago – his Bristol Bears coach Pat Lam said on Thursday that Janse van Rensburg is still going through the return-to-play protocols.
What’s the deal – or the lack of one – with Shaun Edwards?
The 60-year-old defence coach was released by France last season but instead of being snapped up by Borthwick the Wiganer has joined Argentina through to the World Cup. “I had a conversation with the boss of the [England] team six weeks ago,” Edwards said to Rugby World magazine this week, “and was told they’re happy with the staff they have and the way things are going.”
So England’s defence remains in the hands of Richard Wigglesworth and Joe El Abd, and the rest of us continue to wonder why the stars of Edwards and the RFU have never aligned, notwithstanding Edwards’s current consultancy with England’s women.