Nations Championship: Debutants who seized their chance on road to RWC 2027

Having his selection policy questioned in a pre-match interview with ITV reporter and former Bath teammate, David Flatman, touched a nerve with Steve Borthwick and brought out his spiky side ahead of England’s 31-24 win against Argentina.

And when later pressed on the issue, Borthwick pointed to his track record in blooding new players by highlighting the fact that 26 players had made their debuts on his watch.

Compared to Argentina, England have been anything but conservative during the first three rounds of The Rugby Championship, handing out new caps to four players to the Pumas’ none.

Argentina are the only team of the 12 participating in the Nations Championship not to give someone new a run out, despite head coach Felipe Contepomi naming six uncapped players in his initial Nations Championship squad.

Leonel Oviedo – the younger brother of the Pumas’ standout performer Joaquín – and Luciano Asevedo, Juan Penoucos, Agustín Fraga and Mateo Soler all remained on a watching brief, bypassing an opportunity to to see how Test-ready their fringe players were in readiness for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia.

One of Borthwick’s mentors, Eddie Jones, has never been afraid to experiment, tactically or in terms of selection, and Japan awarded the most new caps (seven) out of a total of 42.

With the Brave Blossoms’ chief playmaker and principal source of points, Seungsin-Lee ruled out for the summer after injuring himself in the Japan Rugby League One final, Jones had a big void to fill.

Eyebrows were raised when he chose to replace the leading points scorer in world rugby in 2025 at No.10 with university rookie, Ryunosuke Ito. Admittedly, Ito wasn’t burdened by the goalkicking duties – full-back Takuro Matsunaga took on that responsibility – but he justified Jones’ faith in him, delivering a fine debut performance in the 27-10 win over Italy in round one.

The top two teams in the world, South Africa and New Zealand, blooded the second-highest number of rookies (five), along with France.

Back-rower Paul de Villiers made a particularly punchy impact after being introduced to the Springboks’ pack against England, clocking up 199 minutea across his three appearances.

The standout for New Zealand was Josh Moorby, who topped the Nations Championship clean breaks category, with seven, having played against Italy and Ireland. But that’s not forgetting Anton Segner, who will always be remembered as the first German-born All Black.

For France, Les Bleus’ lock Tom Staniforth was a carrying machine on debut against the All Blacks and wing Aaron Grandidier Nkanang hit the ground running with a brace against Australia.

Judging the England debutants on their performance against Fiji alone would be short-sighted given the quality of the opposition, but Noah ‘Air’ Caluori once again proved he is capable of scoring at any level and reaching even greater heights.

As for the rest, Benhard Janse van Rensburg was the most high-profile and didn’t do a lot wrong, but still has work to do if he’s to get on that plane to Australia.

Lachlan Shaw was sin-binned on debut for Australia, while Declan Meredith scored a five in Finn Morton’s player ratings for RugbyPass, after failing ‘to command the contest’.

Meanwhile, Scotland, Ireland and Wales’ prime focus seemed to be on developing depth in the front row.

Country-by-country: Nations Championship debutants

Argentina: None
Australia (3): Lachlan Shaw, Declan Meredith, Miles Amatosero
England (4): Noah Caluori, George Kloska, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Emmanuel Iyogun
Fiji (2): Isikeli Rabitu, Virimi Vakatawa
France (5): Tom Staniforth, Barnabe Massa, Moses Alo-Emile, Aaron Grandidier Nkanang, Paul Graou
Ireland (4): Billy Bohan, Sam Illo, Sean Jansen, Bryn Ward
Italy (3): Malik Faissal, Alessandro Ortombina, Giulio Marini
Japan (7): Ryunosuke Ito, Itsuki Kamimura, Sojiro Otsuka, Michael Stolberg, Esei Haangana, Izi Sword, Shunsuke Uenobo
New Zealand (5): Fehi Fineanganofo, Jamie Hannah, Xavie Numia, Anton Segner, Josh Moorby
Scotland (2): Gregor Hiddleston, Seb Stephen
South Africa (5): Paul de Villiers, Ruben van Heerden, Vusi Moyo, Carlu Sadie, Jaco Williams
Wales (2): Ben Warren, Kane James