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21 of 31 England November picks feature in this weekend's Premiership
By Liam Heagney
Twenty-one of the 31 England players capped by Steve Borthwick over the course of the four-game Autumn Nations Series will feature in this weekend’s Gallagher Premiership resumption – including eight of last Sunday’s series-ending Test starters versus Japan.
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Northampton pair Ollie Sleightholme and George Furbank, Leicester duo George Martin and Jack van Poortvliet, Bath’s Ollie Lawrence and Will Stuart, Exeter’s Henry Slade, and Sale’s Tom Curry have all been given an immediate return with their club’s just days after appearing as Allianz Stadium starters.
Five of last Sunday’s international bench – Sale’s Luke Cowan-Dickie, Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Tom Roebuck, Northampton’s Fin Smith and Harlequins’ Fin Baxter (as a sub) – have also been selected by their clubs for weekend action.
Other November-capped England players lining out across the country will be Leicester’s Freddie Steward and Dan Cole (as a sub), Sale’s Ben Curry and George Ford, Saracens’ Theo Dan, Harlequins’ Alex Dombrandt, Exeter’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Bath’s Ben Spencer.
The 10 players marked absent include Saracens’ Ben Earl and Maro Itoje who, along with Northampton’s Tommy Freeman, featured on all 360 minutes of England’s four matches. Harlequins’ Chandler Cunningham-South and Marcus Smith, Bristol’s Ellis Genge and Harry Randall, Saracens’ Jamie George and Nick Isiekwe, and Bath’s Sam Underhill (injured) also won’t feature.
While Borthwick gave appearances across the matches versus New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan to 31 players, there were another nine players who trained without getting selected – and all nine of these are involved with the club’s in Premiership round seven.
For Harlequins’ Joe Marler, Friday night will be his last club appearance before his immediate-effect retirement from the game. He takes the pitch at The Stoop with Cadan Murley, a match week four call-up by Borthwick, and Luke Northmore, who trained all the way through the series.
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Other full-series trainers – Northampton’s Alex Coles and Trevor Davison, and Saracens’ Alex Lozowski – are pencilled in for club starts as are Bath’s Charlie Ewels and Ted Hill, and Saracens’ Elliot Daly.
On a separate note, Alex Mitchell, Borthwick’s first-choice first nine who missed the entire November series with a neck injury, has been named on Saints’ bench for his first club appearance of the season after recovering from a neck issue.
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