Steve Borthwick reveals how Ben Youngs reacted to his England axe

England boss Steve Borthwick has finally addressed his midweek decision to scratch men’s record caps holder Ben Youngs from the squad for this Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations match at home to Italy. The 33-year-old, who made his first Test appearance in 2010, has been a selection mainstay ever since then and he earned his 122nd cap off the Twickenham bench last Saturday versus Scotland.

However, Borthwick took the decision this week to promote Alex Mitchell to the replacements and release Youngs from the squad when it was cut from 36 to 29 in midweek. No explanation was forthcoming at the time of that announcement from the England head coach as he wasn’t scheduled for a media briefing until Friday’s late afternoon match day team naming.

After fielding a multitude of questions on the hot topic that was the demotion of Marcus Smith to the bench, Borthwick was asked to share his thoughts on why England had jettisoned Youngs and whether it potentially signals the beginning of the end of his stellar international career.

Steve Borthwick reveals why he has benched Marcus Smith and started Owen Farrell at fly-half

Steve Borthwick reveals why he has benched Marcus Smith and started Owen Farrell at fly-half

“Ben is a tremendous player and has a wealth of experience,” began Borthwick. “I know him having worked with him really closely for the last few seasons at club level also [Leicester].

“The way he trained this week was brilliant, the way he handled the news around selection is testament to his character. He was just a model of putting the team first. Look at the quality of the nines. We have got two young nines in the squad this week who I think are the right nines for this game [the starting Jack van Poortvliet with Mitchell as cover].

“I have said this consistently, we want to have competition for places in this English team. It is the way it should be and if we get competition for places you will then have players, high-quality players, that aren’t selected. My job is to pick the right blend of players for the game we are playing, the type of game we are playing, the opposition we are playing which is what I have done this week and that means there are good players who aren’t selected.

“What I look at is how they respond and to a man, I would say every one of the players this week has trained brilliantly.”