Borthwick gives England injury update, praises suspended Owen Farrell
Steve Borthwick has suggested injuries shouldn’t impact team selection when he names his England XV on Thursday to play Argentina this coming weekend. The English resumed training on Monday in 23°C heat at base camp in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage ahead of next Saturday’s Rugby World Cup opener in Marseille.
Weekend speculation swirling about the squad was that a whole raft of players – Courtney Lawes (general soreness), Tom Curry (ankle), Manu Tuilagi (groin), Henry Arundell (back spasm), Kyle Sinckler (chest), Elliot Daly and George Martin (both knee issues) – could potentially miss game one through a variety of knocks, but the head coach claimed that wasn’t the case.
Stand-in skipper Lawes, who missed last Saturday’s World Cup capping ceremony after training on a heavy pitch on Friday, was back in harness as were Curry, Tuilagi, Arundell and Sinckler, while his expectation was that Daly and Martin would also be fully back this week.
Borthwick went on to deliver a timely update on Curry, the only member of the 33-strong squad not to have played a single minute of England’s four-game Summer Nations Series. “Tom Curry only just missed the last game (versus Fiji) and he is looking very good, so the squad is in good shape,” said the coach.
“At this stage, I don’t anticipate anybody being unavailable for this weekend (apart from the suspended Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola, the latter who trained on his own on Monday). I’ll be speaking on Thursday and I’ll give you the update then. Hopefully, at this stage, everybody will be available.”
Asked if he would be tempted to throw Curry in versus Argentina without having played in any match last month, Borthwick added: “Every day I assess players. Tom looks in fantastic shape. He has been doing plenty of skill work. Everybody knows about the condition he has. I have no doubt that he would be able to handle the return straight to Test rugby.”
Borthwick went on to pay tribute to the role skipper Farrell has played in preparations despite his four-game ban meaning he will miss the upcoming tournament games versus the Pumas and Japan.
“I’ll say every day Owen has been outstanding on the days that weren’t disrupted by him not being available to train due to that process.
“He has been brilliant around the squad, continues to be brilliant around the squad, an example on the training field and in terms of someone playing fly-half on the opposition team he is pretty good. He tests us pretty well.
“In that sense, he is integral to us. I see the players, the relationship Owen has with them, they look to him, they take strength from him, they take advice from him so having Owen there as our leader; unfortunately, he is not on the pitch on Saturday with us but he is with us all the way through it and he will be helping to make sure this team is in the right place come kick-off.”
England copped an avalanche of flak last month during what was widely considered to be the worst build-up by an English side to any World Cup because of suspension, losses and injuries.
The head coach was keen to stress that the mood was now very much changed with the squad in France and in Test week one. “It is brilliant that we are now here in France, here in Touquet,” he said.
“We have found a beautiful French town that likes English people so the squad has been welcomed with open arms here. We are really enjoying it and we are really looking forward to this game against Argentina on Saturday.
GONE IN 14 SECONDS: England skipper Owen Farrell was put on the spot in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage on Monday when quizzed about the criticisms by Danny Cipriani about his "mafia" type leadership. #EnglandRugby #ENGvARG #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/pJZYjCBNb5
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 4, 2023
“We are going to get on with our work, we are going to get on with building. Players trained really well this morning, they are looking in really good shape.
“We know Argentina are a strong side, we know they are a side that have beaten New Zealand, beaten Australia, beaten England in the last year, so we know they are a very good team coming out of The Rugby Championship. They have a lot of expectations on them. For us, we will go about our work.
“I sense a great deal of excitement. We’re here, we’re in Test week, we’re in the World Cup, we’re in France – I sense the excitement has gone up another level.”
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments