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England: Standing Feyi-Waboso down against Wales wasn't considered
By Liam Heagney
England boss Steve Borthwick has explained that omitting rookie winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso from his match day 23 to face Wales was never a consideration.
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The 21-year-old was born and raised in Cardiff, but he is now in line to earn his second Test cap against his native country after being named as Borthwick’s 23-man for the round two Guinness Six Nations game at Twickenham.
Feyi-Waboso played for Wales at U18s level but having starred at Gallagher Premiership and Investec Champions Cup level this season for Rob Baxter’s Exeter Chiefs, the university medical student threw his international allegiance in with England as he qualified through a grandmother.
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The youngster made his English Test debut off the bench in Rome last weekend and Borthwick mentioned in the aftermath that they would take special care of their newcomer in the lead-up to the clash with Wales due to the online abuse suffered by Owen Farrell and Tom Curry at the recent Rugby World Cup.
Wales boss Warren Gatland had claimed Feyi-Waboso ‘s allegiance change hadn’t gone down well in some quarters across the border and Borthwick said after the 27-24 win over the Italians: “There is a heightened awareness now of those external noises and external factors. We will give all the players all the support they need.
“Regarding Manny, three things: he trains really hard, he enjoys being with the players and in the remaining time he is studying for his medicine degree. He is pretty busy. My experience right now is that he has his head focused on where it needs to be.”
The head coach doubled down on this observation following a Thursday team announcement at Pennyhill that confirmed an unchanged starting line-up from round one and the reinstatement of Ellis Genge as the only bench change.
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Asked if there was a consideration to stand Feyi-Waboso down from the match against the country of his birth, Borthwick said: “Not from my point of view. He came on last week in the last 10 minutes of the game and I thought he did really well in that time.
“He has been an incredibly calm, composed, mature character. I’m sure Jamie (George, the captain) can add more in that regard. He has trained super well. In the little time I have known him he doesn’t seem to get fazed and so I only have good things to say about the man.”
George chipped in: “I have been so impressed with everyone who has come into the squad for the first time, Manny in particular. He is a very confident guy, he understands the system. Probably our defensive system is one that is pretty similar to Exeter, which is obviously beneficial.
“But like Steve said, he isn’t fazed by anything. He relishes the big occasion. He is very excited this week in particular, I know that. I think the way he has been fitting into the team is credit to him and credit to all the hard work that he has done.”
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Feyi-Waboso was one of five players who earned their debut Test caps in Rome. Fraser Dingwall and Ethan Roots were both in the starting line-up while Chandler Cunningham-South and Fin Smith made their first appearances from the bench.
All five have now been included to face the Welsh and new skipper George has been pleased with his team’s build-up to Saturday. “There is a huge excitement around the squad in terms of building on the performance as a whole.
“We have said it a million times since Saturday, it wasn’t exactly where we wanted it to be but the courage and the endeavour to try and do things a little bit differently, to try and play at a higher intensity was there.
“Naturally as a player, you just want to go into the next thing. Steve has been having to pull us back all week because it’s England-Wales, we’re back at Twickenham for the first time; there is a huge amount of excitement.
“Those young guys who came in for their first caps, first and foremost they deserve their selection because they were brilliant in terms of what they did.
“Ethan and Fraser in starting the game and the rest of the guys off the bench really added. I guess that hopefully answers your question (about changes being kept to a minimum) in that everyone wants to put their hand up.
“The guys that have come back in outside the 23 have come back in and really added. We really want to try and build on the foundation we laid in Rome.”
The whiff of treachery will hang around the England bench at Twickenham.
The only people making a fuss about this is England. Wales frankly don’t care if he plays or not. He made his choice, he never really figured in Welsh coaches thoughts and made it clear he wants to stay in England. He may have been born in Wales but that does not make you Welsh. The thing in your chest that beats to send your blood around your body is what makes you Welsh and his obviously is not!
I agree the noise does seem to be a little engineered by the media (no surprises there), Gatland’s comments have been clipped up online and his relaying of a somewhat tongue-in-cheek comment by Jenks is being misattributed to Gats himself. Feyi-Waboso isn’t the first and won’t be the last, international rugby is full of examples. Fair play to him for running with his opportunity to play Test rugby, I hope he’s given a good go at it!