'Prince of Centres' Jeremy Guscott dumbfounded by 'odd' England omission

Jeremy Guscott, arguably England’s greatest centre, is mystified by Steve Borthwick’s decision to leave Max Ojomoh out of his latest England squad.

The 42 players chosen to attend a three-day training camp at England’s Performance Centre at Pennyhill Park this week include Bristol’s uncapped centre Benhard Janse Van Rensburg, but not Bath’s Ojomoh, who proved his fitness with a sublime cameo off the bench against Newcastle last weekend after nearly a month out with injury.

Ojomoh has fallen out of favour with Borthwick since a Player of the Match display against Argentina last November, and has failed to add to his two caps since then, much to Guscott’s surprise.

Writing on X, the 73-cap international (England the Lions) said: “Max Ojomoh being left out of Borthwick’s latest England training squad feels a strange one. How do you go from man of the match v Argentina six months ago to not making a large England squad?

“England’s biggest issue in the Six Nations, apart from defence, wasn’t getting into the opposition 22, it was finishing once they got there. Four defeats, plenty of pressure, not enough points. So leaving out a player who creates tries, scores tries and passes the eye test feels odd.

“Clearly Steve Borthwick is measuring players against very specific metrics and standards behind the scenes, and whatever they are, Ojomoh hasn’t ticked enough boxes. But from the outside looking in, it’s hard to understand.

“Sometimes rugby people overcomplicate what’s in front of them. Ojomoh looks good enough. More than good enough, actually.”