3 hot takes as England talk up a bench with Marcus Smith on it

England have yet to convince on the field under new head coach Steve Borthwick but no one can accuse him of staging dull team selection media briefings. Last week’s bombshell was the axing of Manu Tuilagi from the match day 23 to face Scotland in the opening round of the Guinness Six Nations.

This week it was the turn of Marcus Smith to be the hot topic, the regular No10 getting dropped to the bench for Sunday’s round two game at home to Italy. Here are three RugbyPass hot takes on the selection announced on Friday:

The Slade and Ollie show
It was seemingly a desire to pair Henry Slade with Ollie Lawrence as a midfield partnership that did for Smith at No10. There was no direct admission from Borthwick about the shortcomings of the Smith/Owen Farrell 10/12 alliance that had started as a partnership in the last eight England games, a run where there were three wins, a draw and four defeats.

Owen Farrell emphasises Englands focus on full team attack | Six Nations 2023

Owen Farrell emphasises Englands focus on full team attack | Six Nations 2023

“We have got some exciting players there in the centre and that is why I decided to make the change,” he said, sidestepping who he had picked Farrell ahead of Smith as his No10.

Given the coach had boxed himself into a corner by naming Farrell last month as his captain for the championship, it was perhaps an easier conversation for Borthwick to bench Smith rather than demote the England leader he so publicly vouched for just 25 days earlier.

We’ll have more about Smith anon, but what about Slade and Lawrence as a combo? They have previously started four Test matches as a 12/13 partnership, beating Georgia, Ireland and the USA but infamously crashing against Scotland two years ago in the Six Nations. That was a match where they lined out with Farrell as the chosen 10 and so dire was the service, Lawrence didn’t get a ball to run onto until about an hour had been played.

The moral of that ill-fated escapade is to get possession beyond Farrell. Otherwise, it doesn’t really matter who wears the No12 and 13 jerseys. Time for the captain to make this England attack tick.

Marcus the sub
November 2021 versus Tonga was the one and only time that Smith was named on the England bench. The reason that week was that he hadn’t trained fully but ever since then, he made the No10 shirt his own and had started in 15 consecutive Test matches. Now he is back in the reserves after a high-profile demotion and how he reacts to having a restricted role in proceedings will be eagerly watched on Sunday.

Italy have a reputation for tiring in the latter stages of matches, an assumption that has been flawed in recent times. Look at how they ambushed Wales 11 months ago in the closing minutes and also see how they kicked a penalty to touch to attack off a maul inside the 22 in the final play last Sunday against France when trailing by just five points.

They have the gas necessary to go the full 80, yet Borthwick sounded like he was purring when questioned on the potency that England should now wield with Smith named on their bench this weekend and not as a starter.

“Look at the talent that is on the bench, the replacements there,” he enthused. “You look at Alex Mitchell, you look at the pace he brings into a game, the linebreak he brings around the ruck, the speed of pass he has.

“You then look at Marcus and all the strengths that he brings, his ability to find space, and then Henry Arundell. From looking at that, that is a very exciting blend to be able to change a game, change the way you want to play within the game. It’s brilliant.

“And then there are some pretty good forwards on the bench. One or two of them are not quite as young, but I thought Dan Cole came off the bench and had an immediate impact that I was very pleased to see last week.”

Jack’s back
It’s fair to say the international career of Jack Willis has never been the same since that awful knee injury suffered two years when he was crocodile rolled at a ruck just minutes after scoring against Italy in the Six Nations. The 26-year-old has played for England since then, three times in fact off the bench, but has yet to look his best.

A cameo in the third Test away to Australia last July 17 months after his dreadful injury marked his comeback, but two more appearances as a sub in the recent Autumn Nations Series didn’t go well as he was without a club at the time after the collapse of Wasps and wasn’t anywhere near the top of his game.

This Sunday, though, the expectation will be for Willis to at last be every bit as good as he used to be pre-injury. He has been moving through the gears over at Toulouse in recent months and now gets an England start, taking over the No7 jersey vacated by Ben Curry. Borthwick can’t wait.

“Since I took this role, I spoke to Jack every week out in Toulouse watching and seeing how hard he has worked,” said the England coach. “He is a player who had a knock and wasn’t playing for the first few weeks of January, but he has worked tremendously hard to get to this point. Delighted for him.

“He has had to manage things. It was very clear (from the French) he couldn’t stay for the full training week, he is then gone and played for his club. He has come back in and trained again for us and gone and played for his club again, and he has managed all those demands in a really mature, professional manner. He adds to a really competitive back row that we have here. Lots of good players fighting for those shirts.”

England (vs Italy, Sunday – 3pm): F Steward (Leicester); M Malins (Saracens), H Slade (Exeter), O Lawrence (Bath), O Hassell-Collins (London Irish); O Farrell (Saracens, capt), J van Poortvliet (Leicester); E Genge (Bristol), J George (Saracens), K Sinckler (Bristol), M Itoje (Saracens), O Chessum (Leicester), L Ludlam (Northampton), J Willis (Toulouse), A Dombrandt (Harlequins). Reps: J Walker (Harlequins), M Vunipola (Saracens), D Cole (Leicester), N Isiekwe (Saracens), B Earl (Saracens), A Mitchell (Northampton), M Smith (Harlequins), H Arundell (London Irish).