3 hot takes as Steve Borthwick names England team to visit Wales

Thursday was like old times with new England boss Steve Borthwick. His opening two team selection conferences had been very lively affairs, the axing of Manu Tuilagi and the benching of Marcus Smith headlining the respective round one and two narratives, but his round three XV naming was a throwback to the sedate nature of his media dealings when in charge at Leicester.

With only one change being made to his England starting team to take on Wales this Saturday, Anthony Watson replacing the injured Ollie Hassell-Collins, the drama of recent weeks was notably absent.

Add to this how Borthwick wasn’t as elaborate with his answers on this occasion and it all made for a tick-box exercise before he hurried away to catch the team bus to Cardiff ahead of what will be his first away match as the England boss.

That didn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of food for thought reading between the lines of this latest England selection. Here are three RugbyPass hot takes:

Naming Lawes as just a sub
The decision by Borthwick to only name Courtney Lawes on the bench suggested a coach who is very optimistic about the make-up of his current starting pack. England have again named all eight forwards who started in the round two win over Italy, seven of which were also round one starters against Scotland.

Openside, where Jack Willis got the nod against the Italians to take over from Ben Curry, has been the only one-to-eight change across the three team selections. It’s a consistency that contrasts wildly with Wales, who have retained just three of the starting pack hammered by the Scots – skipper Ken Owens, lock Adam Beard and rookie blindside Christ Tshiunza.

What gives regarding England? Borthwick is on message about how poor his team’s set-piece was in the latter games under Eddie Jones, finger jabbing that their scrum, maul and lineout wasn’t fit for purpose compared to the unit that reached the 2019 Rugby World Cup final when Borthwick was in charge of the forwards as an assistant under Jones.

The new head coach believes that selection consistency is the major way to rebuild his pack’s foundations and his decision to hold Lawes in reserve at the Principality is a ringing endorsement regarding how he views young Ollie Chessum at lock and Lewis Ludlam at blindside.

Comments would have been muted had Lawes been named as a starter now that he is fit in place of either Chessum or Ludlam, but Borthwick is a fan of both those forwards given what he has said about them in public so far this month.

To drop either player would have hit their confidence hard, so Borthwick is boxing clever by keeping both in the XV for now and having Lawes as plan B if things don’t work out in the opening 50 minutes in Cardiff.

All silent this week on the Faz/Smith front
Just a fortnight ago, Borthwick was deluged by questions on the benching of Smith, a decision that resulted in skipper Owen Farrell switching into out-half from inside centre and allowing England to rekindle the raw midfield partnership of Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade.

There wasn’t a whisper about that same selection being unveiled for the trip to Wales which suggests the media are generally onside with what Borthwick is trying to do to ignite the English backline which had been depowered under Jones.

Thing is, though, it was brute forward power that laid the platform for the round two win over the Italians, Willis, Chessum and Jamie George all scoring from close range before a penalty try for a maul infringement secured the four-try bonus point.

It was only when sub scrum-half Alex Mitchell went on a crossfield wander that Henry Arundell, his fellow replacement, got the backs on the scoreboard a couple of minutes before Smith was given a late cameo that didn’t produce.

That all suggested the emphasis following the round one loss to Scotland was on getting back to basics, permitting the forwards to do their thing reliably and having less of a demand on the backs to create. That restricted approach worked against the Italians but you feel England will have to produce more cunning in the backs if they are to expose Welsh vulnerabilities.

All eyes then on Farrell to really show why he is now the favoured No10 and that it indeed remains the correct decision by Borthwick not to go with Smith in that particular role.

The ‘magnificent’ Watson verdict
It’s been 23 months since Watson last played for England as a starter but that gap will now be closed in Cardiff when he runs out wearing the No11 jersey vacated by the injured Hassell-Collins. As much as some fans would have liked to see how Arundell would cope in getting what would have been his first-ever Test start, having Watson start and the London Irish youngster warning the bench for later is probably for the best.

Arundell showed with his score in the corner versus Italy that he has quite the knack for exposing tiring defenders and is the better bet to generate as a replacement rather than have Watson reprise the role he had earlier this month versus Scotland.

There were 15 minutes remaining when Watson replaced Hassell-Collins at Twickenham but that game’s conclusion largely passed him by with the Scots pouncing for the victory. Having ruptured his ACL in October 2021 with Bath, Watson was a Leicester player signed by Borthwick by the time he was fit to return to action and he has so far made 11 appearances for the Tigers, scoring four tries.

Borthwick was chuffed he could now pick him to start a Test. “I took the opportunity to sign him in club rugby and from the day he walked in (at Leicester) he was magnificent – the professionalism, the way he prepared himself, the way he helped the younger players, how much he cares as a professional.

“I use that word a lot. Sometimes from the outside, you don’t see how much how these guys care. He cares deeply about this team, playing for England. It’s great to have him.”

ENGLAND (vs Wales, Saturday – 4:45pm): 15. F Steward (Leicester); 14. M Malins (Saracens), 13. H Slade (Exeter), 12. O Lawrence (Bath), 11. A Watson (Leicester); 10, O Farrell (Saracens, capt), 9. J van Poortvliet (Leicester); 1. E Genge (Bristol), 2. J George (Saracens), 3. K Sinckler (Bristol), 4. M Itoje (Saracens), 5. O Chessum (Leicester), 6. L Ludlam (Northampton), 7. J Willis (Toulouse), 8. A Dombrandt (Harlequins). Reps: 16. J Walker (Harlequins), 17. M Vunipola (Saracens), 18. D Cole (Leicester), 19. C Lawes (Northampton), 20. B Curry (Sale), 21. A Mitchell (Northampton), 22. M Smith (Harlequins), 23. H Arundell (London Irish).