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Four talking points as England name team to host the Springboks
By Liam Heagney
Steve Borthwick kept to his schedule this week, sticking to the plan that had his latest England team announcement pencilled in for Thursday.
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The past two weeks he had jumped the gun, arriving in off the Pennyhill Park training ground on the Tuesday and deciding to bring forward his team announcements versus New Zealand and Australia by two days.
That was a tactic from the old Warren Gatland playbook, organise to announce on Thursday and then gazump the opposition by confidently naming the team on the Tuesday with a swagger.
It worked for Wales back in the day when they were winning Six Nations Grand Slams, reaching Rugby World Cup semi-finals and picking up Autumn Nations Series scalps. However, the Gatland 2.0 era in Wales has been dismal… and England under Borthwick have been tracking in a similar way results-wise.
The Welsh have lost 10 on the bounce, England have lost five – or six of the last eight if you stretch the outlook back to their last February crash at Scotland.
That’s a barren run that must end soon for the head coach’s credibility and he has his work cut out this Saturday with the world champion Springboks in London town. Here are the RugbyPass England team talking points:
Spencer axed
So long, Ben Spencer. Having waited his entire career to start a Test with England, the 32-year-old finds himself axed after just two starts under Borthwick. With Alex Mitchell off limits due to a neck injury, the Bath skipper was given first dibs on the No9 shirt.
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He went well versus the All Blacks, as he featured in the post-game debate alleging that Borthwick had withdrawn his half-backs too early and it gave momentum the tourists their match-winning invite.
Spencer struggled against the Wallabies, though. While there was one supreme off-load from the floor to Tommy Freeman after he had pounced on loose ball, he was missing in action when Tate McDermott skipped around a first-half ruck to set up Harry Wilson’s try.
Then, after some ineffective box kicking, he couldn’t do enough to shunt the scoring Jeremy Williams into touch when tackling him in the corner.
Spencer was subbed on 62 minutes for Harry Randall, who now finds himself jumped in the pecking order as Jack van Poortvliet had been ranked as the squad’s third pick but he will start against the Springboks.
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Spencer was a different style player to Mitchell, but van Poortvliet is more of a mirror image to what England had with the Northampton player as their No9.
The selection closes the circle on events 15 months ago when serious injury to van Poortvliet opened the door for Mitchell to go to the Rugby World Cup. Now, it’s van Poortvliet’s chance to benefit from Mitchell being the one injured.
It’s Freddie
It’s been quite the 13 months for the 23-year-old Freddie Steward. First capped under Eddie Jones, he continued his excellent run of selection under Borthwick until the miserable week in Provence when he learned that Marcus Smith would be the starting full-back against Fiji in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final.
With Smith injured in that match, Steward was back in situ for the following weekend’s semi-final versus South Africa and he was excellent defending in the air and filling the space.
He was similarly defensively effective in the early February win over Wales, but ambition to finesse the attack counted him out for the next five matches due to the belief that George Furbank has more to offer in that department.
Injury to Furbank got Steward back in the team for the July tour-ending loss to New Zealand. but it was back to the sidelines for the opening round of the Autumn Nations Series.
However, he has now been reinstated at No15 following England’s concession of eight tries in their two November matches under new defence coach Joe El-Abd. Shutting the door will be Steward’s remit as well as taking to the skies… just as he memorably did on a rainy night in Paris 13 months ago.
Underhill’s return
Two of the four changes England have made to their starting line-up were concussion-enforced following the bangs Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso sustained against the Wallabies.
It’s good from a player welfare perspective that both have been afforded the time and space to get themselves fully right – and it has also meant that that the preamble to Saturday’s match hasn’t been consumed by the prospect of Curry sharing the pitch for the first time with Bongi Mbonambi for the first time since their rumbustious World Cup semi-final disagreement.
Curry had claimed that he was called a “white c**t” by Mbonambi during the Stade de France game, but a World Rugby investigation in the following days found insufficient evidence. Mbonambi insisted at the time that the misunderstanding had arisen because Curry didn’t realise he was speaking Afrikaans, saying “wit kant”, the white-clothed side.
With Curry sidelined, Sam Underhill is the selection beneficiary and he will feel he has a big point to prove to Borthwick.
He had been the starting England No7 in nine consecutive matches, stretching back to his man of the match effort versus Argentina in the bronze medal game in France, but alleged rustiness with Bath this season saw him relinquish the Test jersey to Curry. But now he is back and his contribution will be crucial if the Springboks are to be repelled.
A classic match-up ?
Relive some of our iconic clashes against South Africa ?
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) November 14, 2024
Faith still in Ford
The promotion of Ollie Sleightholme into the starting XV was only right given his two-try cameo off the bench against the Wallabies. Of course, there will be defensive concerns as he was involved in a couple of shabby moments last Saturday, but he is quite the potent finisher and deserves his chance with Feyi-Waboso unavailable.
One-cap Tom Roebuck will fill Sleightholme’s bench role, but what is most curious about the replacements is Borthwick’s stubbornness regarding George Ford. He has had two terrible appearances as a sub in recent weeks, but he has retained the No22 shirt with Fin Smith again overlooked.
Numerous England fans have been clamouring to see more of the 22-year-old Smith but with the 31-year-old Ford named by Borthwick as one of his 17 enhanced elite player squad picks, it seems the head coach has plenty of faith still left in Ford even though his Test form has been terrible on the back of limited time this season with Sale.
Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)
Not sure I'd agree that van Poortvliet is a mirror image of Mitchell. They play the game very differently
Underhill finally back, he keeps being left out and I've no idea why. He's probably the best 7 we've had since 2003.
The man's a beast isn't he
So bye bye to settled team .
Two more leicester players shoehorned in .
I do wish them both well and can see the point of large full back .
But Spencer/ Furbank not even in the 23 is madness.
Vdp has not done enough to earn his place compared to Spencers form at Bath this year ,but I hope he can do ok .
If Borthwick is picking on form then how the dickens can ford keep his place after 2 very poor games.
Poor Fin Smith must be wondering how much better he has to play to get in if Ford can give tries away and still get picked.Also, At least Furbank could play 10 or 15 or 11/14 if needs but ford only has the skill to play 10 .this limit the option really badly by picking ford . No speed . No skill at tackling .
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I do hope Marcus comes through the 80 mins unscathed
JVP is Ben Youngs lite from what i have seen, SB appears to have returned to the box kick mentality that he used in the WC which was fine then as it was wet but Saturdays forecast is for dry weather and light winds and i cannot see this tactic working as well.
Steward as solid under the high ball as he is, has no real pace in attack and turns slower than a tractor, the SA wingers will be licking their lips when kicks are put in behind him.
Other than the swaps for the concussed players i fear it is more of the same this week and i can see us (Eng) getting rinsed in the scrum.
It will be interesting to see if Ford is brought on at 60 as he is more of a kicking 10 ten than Smith, i just do not see where our attack is coming from as WW is out of his depth going on recent displays..