Atrás
Following the announcement of Steve Borthwick’s training squad ahead of the Nations Championship, here is our take on the key winners and losers.
Winners
One of a few individuals rewarded for a storming start to the season after playing a significant role in Gloucester topping the PREM table. Has played both wing and centre, excelling in both, and is an exciting prospect who is looking to follow in his brother’s footsteps by putting on a white shirt.
Jonathan Joseph was an exceptional player for England and, just like his elder sibling, Will is blessed with great footwork, balance and pace, but he perhaps packs slightly more power in contact having bumped off a few defenders this season.
Not necessarily been a standout as such since returning to England but he’s been doing the basics very well and will certainly be an option in that 13 shirt looking ahead to next year’s Rugby World Cup. Marchant has defended well in that outside centre channel for Sale Sharks but you want to see more of him with ball in hand.
Another Sale player that comes straight back in despite the team’s struggles and his own absence through injury. Curry was making just his second start in their defeat to Newcastle Red Bulls but, in an England team which has struggled to steal ball at the breakdown, he is an excellent pilferer that can turn the tide for the Red Rose at the contact area.
Similar to Curry, gets in even though he has struggled with injury. In Baxter’s case, Sunday’s London derby with Saracens was his first game since December and he showed some promising signs, including a stunning off-load for Seb Driscoll’s try.
The Harlequins scrum did struggle with Baxter there but the issues were more on the side of the tighthead with Ollie Streeter a 20-year-old making his first foray into professional rugby. The loosehead’s selection also shows England’s lack of depth in that position with no one else really stepping up to support the first choice Ellis Genge.
Speaking of looseheads, Iyogun is the third option here having showed some consistent form for Northampton Saints over the past few years. Iyogun deserves his shot and at 25 is starting to find more set-piece dominance, which will give him a chance of featuring in November.
One of the most unlucky players over the past couple of seasons, but Pearson has been named in the wider squad this time around. Again, it seems unlikely that he gets into the 23 but just being in the 36 is a win for the hugely talented flanker; England simply have so many options in the back-row.
Has won the race for the third hooking spot as Borthwick looks to develop the successor to Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie. England don’t lack talent in that position but they are in a bit of a quandary with George and Cowan-Dickie both heading towards their last World Cup and no natural replacement(s) in line.
In 21-year-old Tuipulotu, they have one of the most highly regarded front-row talents in Europe and his work around the field is exceptional, but as ever with young hookers, it is his set-piece which needs improvement.
Another young player who has burst onto the scene and forced his way in after impressing for Northampton Saints, where he has become a genuine challenger to Alex Mitchell at the East Midlands outfit. McParland, in many ways, is a similar player to Mitchell as he challenges the fringes and gets his side quick ball.
One of the luckiest players to get in on form alone. With that in mind, Ford should not be a factor in the 23 but he does add experience and has an excellent rugby brain, even if that has not been seen at Sale too much so far this season.
Losers
There were a few notable absentees but, when it was revealed they were nursing injuries, it made much more sense. Seb Atkinson is one of those on the sidelines and he has been joined by fellow centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg.
It has already been stated that Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is suffering from a tight hamstring and England are being cautious about his return, while Guy Pepper sustained a nasty-looking injury at Gloucester on Friday. Finally Chandler Cunningham-South and Henry Arundell are other players currently on the sidelines.
England do not lack for depth on the wing and these two have unfortunately paid the price for that. It has to be said, Hendy’s continued omission is a big surprise considering how good he has been for Northampton, while his versatility is another plus – he is a genuine option at wing and full-back.
As for Radwan, the 28-year-old continues to put in the performances for Leicester Tigers and you can’t criticise much about his all-round game, but he is a shorter wing and Borthwick puts more emphasis on winning the aerial battle, which is why youngster Noah Caluori gets in ahead of these two.
Has often been in the Pearson category of being incredibly unfortunate, but this time we thought the Bristol Bears star might just sneak in. During the PREM opener against Sale Sharks, Harding was particularly exceptional and utterly outplayed Tom Curry, but it was still not enough to convince the Red Rose boss.
While most of the Sale players in this England squad were lucky, Carpenter was one of the few unlucky ones having made an excellent start to the campaign despite his team’s pretty abysmal displays. Borthwick prefers George Furbank and Freddie Steward, and of course Marcus Smith is another option there, and that has cost the 25-year-old.
It is not a position which England have nailed down, though, and if Furbank continues to get injured and Steward fails to catch high balls at Test level, an area he should be dominating, then Carpenter must come into contention.
Continuing with the Sharks theme, there went into this season with plenty of possible international candidates, but they have quite simply not done enough. Ben Bamber, Nathan Jibulu and Rekeiti Ma’asi-White have been touted at some point, while Tom Roebuck has fallen out of the Test reckoning.
There was also the question of whether Borthwick would bring Courtney Lawes back, who has returned to put his hand up for the 2027 World Cup. The experience back five forward has actually been one of their better players, but he also misses out.
It has been a fine piece of recruitment from Newcastle Red Bulls to get in the New Zealand-born flanker. Qualifies for England via his mother and has put his hand up with a series of superb performances for the North East outfit.
A place in the England ‘A’ squad seems the more likely option for Hicks at the moment but he can’t have been too far away from the main 36 having impressed in the Red Bulls back-row. At 6ft 6in, he is the type of blindside most Test teams are looking for.
Once seen as the future of the hooking position, Dan has dropped down the pecking order after suffering a dip in form. There are also key weaknesses in his game that have not been addressed. The obvious one is his lineout throwing, but the other, perhaps less talked about, is his ball security in contact.
Dan’s hands are too unreliable at the moment and being prone to knocking the ball on is not a good trait to have at any level, but particularly the highest one where having a low error count is paramount.
Gloucester are the early pacesetters with Atkinson in particular an important part of their resurgence. He is a player the England coaches really like having been involved in the ‘A’ side on a number of occasions but it was always going to be difficult to displace the two Smiths, Marcus and Fin, and Ford.
The same goes for Searle, who was probably the best fly-half in the PREM last season. He has not started this season quite as well but the 30-year-old could still probably put himself in the unfortunate category.
We have already spoken about loosehead spot and the lack of depth, but the Leicester prop has put himself in contention over the past 12 months. The cousin of Ireland back-rower Josh, he is an excellent scrummager and gets around the field well, but he just misses out to Iyogun. We are sure his time will come, however.
Fasogbon finds himself in a similar situation. The very promising prop has been excellent for Gloucester so far this season but they probably don’t want two young tightheads in the 36 with Asher Opoku-Fordjour the player preferred despite his mixed form for Sale.
Scrum-half is like a lot of positions in the England squad where there are plenty of players competing for sometimes just one spot. Mitchell was always going to be selected while Jack van Poortvliet is liked by the England coaches and plays consistently well for Leicester.
That left the likes of McParland, Spencer and Randall looking to get that third slot and Borthwick has ultimately opted for the former, who has been in better form than certainly Spencer. Despite the class and experience Bath have at half-back, Spencer and Finn Russell have struggled to get them to fire. As for Randall, he is playing well for Bristol, but there are always doubts about his kicking game at Test level.
Atrás
Top
| Declaración de privacidad Términos del servicio Contacto |
Refresca
|
All the best breaking news stories from Apex Football Lite. Optimised for feature phones and low end Android devices, Apex Football Lite helps users with legacy devices and poor network connectivity access the latest football news and live scores. Particularly relevant for breaking football news in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.