Three talking points as Steve Borthwick names England team for Italy

England named their team on Thursday for this Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener away to Italy in Rome. It was a selection with a difference, Steve Borthwick making eight changes to his starting XV from the team that ran out 15 weeks ago versus South Africa in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals. Here, RugbyPass runs the rule over some of the major talking points:

Real win for the rugby small guy
This was the type of new-look team Steve Borthwick should have picked at the start of his reign, not 12 months later. When he took the reins from Eddie Jones, abject England were crying out for fresh blood and fans wanted to see real change.

Instead, Ollie Hassell-Collins was the only rookie included versus Scotland for the 2023 Guinness Six Nations opener – and he was quickly forgotten about some weeks later when injury became the excuse to freeze him out of the squad.

Stuart Lancaster discusses Owen Farrell’s move to Racing 92

Stuart Lancaster discusses Owen Farrell’s move to Racing 92

Hopefully, that won’t be the case with the five rookies now chosen for debut caps in Rome, the starting Fraser Dingwall and Ethan Roots along with subs Chandler Cunningham-South, Fin Smith and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

All five have been impressive in the Gallagher Premiership this winter and we can only be thankful that club form has been recognised when a year ago experience mattered way more to Borthwick when it came to Test selection.

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We should definitely salute the fast-track emergence of Roots, Cunningham-South, Smith and Feyi-Waboso, as they are all players new to the Test squad with specific talents to get very excited about. However, the inclusion of Dingwall at inside centre is a tremendous credit to his patience – and a real win for the rugby small guy!

He held tackle bags for far too long with England under Jones, getting called up for considerable bouts of training without ever threatening a Test debut.

It was something that ex-Northampton boss Chris Boyd openly bemoaned, tiring of seeing a large Saints fringe get called up by England without getting a genuine chance to progress. “Those guys have gone and had a little taste and haven’t really kicked on,” he said at the time.

It was a few years ago when Dingwall highlighted on RugbyPass his lack of heft and how he was making up for it in other facets. “I’m not one of the biggest centres, so I have to make up for it with intent and mental attitude towards the contact area and probably technique, so I do a lot of work because I’m not necessarily blessed with huge amounts of size and strength,” he said.

The latest Six Nations media guide and the Northampton Saints website have him currently listed at 86kgs. If correct, that’s 26kgs lighter than the 112kgs that Manu Tuilagi weighed when he wore the England No12 shirt at the recent Rugby World Cup, so fans will be getting a very different player in this midfield role compared to the France 2023 battering ram approach.

Ford can’t afford to fail
Given the refreshing emphasis on change in the match day 23 unveiled by Steve Borthwick, there will be a huge focus on the leadership and guidance provided by the very experienced backbone that still exists.

Naming Fin Smith at No10 for a Test debut was considered a bridge too far just now for the head coach, who has instead chosen to go with George Ford in the starting shirt.

That endorsement makes sense in that this championship opener is an away game and England will be of a mind not to give the Italians a sniff of causing an upset.

What it does mean, though, is that Ford must definitely deliver, not only with his performance but also in putting the likes of fellow seasoned operators Joe Marler, Jamie George and Maro Itoje in areas of the pitch where they can dominate and be at their best.

The World Cup was initially quite the tonic for Ford in the way that he took the Marseille opener by the scruff of the neck and proceeded to kick the life out of Argentina with England short the red-carded Tom Curry.

However, he would surely have been miffed at being only trusted for a blink-and-you-missed-it cameo off the bench in the semi-final with England having fallen behind to Handre Pollard’s late penalty kick following a scrum infringement.

With Owen Farrell now erased from the Test picture for the foreseeable future and with Marcus Smith currently sidelined, this is a huge opportunity for Ford to demonstrate he is the player who deserves to be England’s first choice No10 over the next while. He can’t afford to fail in Rome.

Let the props play on
Steve Borthwick was a creature of habit in so many areas during his maiden year at the England helm. Look, for instance, at how he allowed hooker Jamie George to play three 80 minutes versus Samoa, Fiji and South Africa and leave the energetic Theo Dan forlorn and unused on the bench.

In contrast, it seemed at times that he couldn’t whip his starting props off quick enough and this practice eventually caught up on the head coach in the semi-final against the Springboks.

The consensus that night was that England’s starting props – Joe Marler and Dan Cole – were both doing great at the scrum and that respectively subbing them on 53 and 56 minutes was the wrong option.

The changes happened too early and it gave the opposition an edge at the set-piece that they used to great effect coming down the finishing straight. Expect Borthwick’s bench use during this championship to now be monitored closely.

England want super sub contributions similar to what the try-scoring and try-saving Danny Care achieved versus Samoa and Lewis Ludlam’s tackle frenzy against Argentina, not changes for change’s sake as if a box in the coaches’ box needs to be ticked by rote.

We know England host Wales in London seven days after Rome, but let the starting props play on if things are going well. Marler and Stuart surely have more to offer than a limited 50-odd minutes each.