The England verdict on inexperience behind Jamie George at hooker

Steve Borthwick was at pains on Monday in getting the message out that he had chosen what he believed was a vastly experienced England squad for the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.

He kept repeating himself at Twickenham, outlining on a number of occasions that there was a 40-caps-per-player average across his selection and that things were looking promising from a ‘we know what we are about’ perspective.

The thing was, when you did a position-by-position analysis of Borthwick’s choices, his 40 caps average took a severe credibility hit at hooker where he has chosen three options.

World Cup warm up highlights | The Breakdown

World Cup warm up highlights | The Breakdown

There is the greatly seasoned Jamie George, who has 77 England caps and two tours with the British and Irish Lions. Behind the long-serving Saracens player, though, is the three-cap Jack Walker and his fellow rookie Theo Dan, who only made his Test debut off the bench in last Saturday’s 9-20 loss to Wales in Cardiff.

It’s quite the yawning gap between the clear first-choice hooker and his two raw understudies for a World Cup campaign that will commence with the September 9 clash versus Argentina in Marseille.

Luke Cowan-Dickie’s injury-enforced absence is the reason for this massive shortfall in experience alongside George, but Borthwick was keen to downplay anxiety over the lack of depth in this specialist position.
“We would want more depth and experience in that position but that is the situation we have found ourselves in,” he shrugged.

“Now I think Theo Dan’s emergence in this last season, you see him emerge as a player with incredible potential. Jack Walker, whilst he only played a certain amount of time in that (2023) Six Nations, has been around the England squad over a number of years, played a number of big games for Harlequins and has played a lot of games.

“But that experience behind Jamie, what you saw if you were down in Cardiff was Jamie was working with the hookers and that has been an important aspect. To talk about experience, nurturing that experience (in those) who have less.”

A shoulder injury was what ruled Cowan-Dickie out of contention but the new Sale signing hasn’t been forgotten by Borthwick. “I get regular updates on players who are carrying injuries and one is Luke Cowan-Dickie, so I’m tracking his progress,” insisted Borthwick.