Coach: Steve Borthwick.
Captain: Jamie George.
One to watch: Fin Smith if the youngster is given a chance at outhalf with George Ford and Marcus Smith in the squad. His maturity against Munster, and the positivity emanating from Northampton where he has been prematurely compared to Jonny Wilkinson, is impressive, if a little unsettling. But he’s a confident playmaker, who kicks his goals, defends aggressively, and has a champion’s mentality.
Forecast: The away matches for England are in Rome, Edinburgh and Lyon. They will expect to beat the Italians in the opening game to keep their unbeaten run against them pristine after 30 meetings. But then the work begins. A better than expected World Cup, England have not become what they want to be, at least not yet. Anything above third place would be seen as positive for them this season.
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The damning stat for England in the Six Nations over recent years emerged earlier this week and screamed underperformance. The former world champions have a 50 per cent win rate over the last six seasons in the championship.
Still, coach Steve Borthwick spoke enthusiastically of this season in Dublin last Monday, although that was before the news filtered through that Bath’s Ollie Lawrence, Harlequins’ Oscar Beard and Sale hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie had been forced out of the squad because of injury.
Lawrence, particularly, is a blow to England as he was earmarked for a starting role in the centre in England’s opening game against Italy in Rome. With Manu Tualagi also injured and Owen Farrell on his way to Paris with Racing ‘92, Borthwick could be missing some real pace, know-how, and power in his backline.
It has been an unwelcome frustration for the bookie’s third favourite team behind France and Ireland.
“The team is really well aware that we haven’t performed in the Six Nations for a period of time,” said Borthwick. “Ireland and France have been the dominant teams and everybody is trying to compete with those two sides.”
England were fourth last year with just two wins from five games including a defeat by Scotland in Twickenham in the opening match. To that end Borthwick has been trying to instil a different mindset into the squad with former Irish back Felix Jones a new addition as the defence coach.
“What’s happened in the past is that lots is talked about England prior to the tournament, but England haven’t then achieved,” said Borthwick. “Our intent is to hit the ground running in Rome the way we want with the intensity that we want to, which again is something that England have not done in recent years.”
England have played the kicking game and analysis shows that defence and kicking the ball wins matches. Last season, Borthwick’s first championship in charge after the departure of Eddie Jones, England averaged 1,048 kicking metres per game and a territory gain of 939m, comfortably the highest in the tournament.
Scrumhalf Jack van Poortvliet, who missed the World Cup with an ankle injury and is not in the current squad, was important in implementing England’s territorial strategy. He box-kicked 38 times, by far the highest amount of any scrumhalf. If Borthwick decides to stick with that, England’s kicking will need to be better judged and tactically more astute.
Saracens hooker Jamie George takes over from Farrell as captain with seven uncapped players in the squad including Exeter Chiefs’ Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. The 21-year-old, who was the subject of a tug-of-war between England and Wales, has been in hot form for Exeter Chiefs this season. Despite being born and raised in Cardiff, Feyi-Waboso qualifies for England through his family heritage.
The injured Beard was another uncapped player, while England also won the scramble with Scotland over the signature of the highly rated Northampton Saints’ outhalf, Fin Smith.
Smith’s grandfather was capped for Scotland and travelled with the 1955 Lions team. Munster fans will remember him from this year’s Champions Cup, when he kicked a drop goal, three penalties and converted both Alex Mitchell and Sam Graham’s tries for a 14-man Northampton win. It would not be a surprise to see Borthwick handing Smith a first cap.
Schedule
Saturday Feb 3rd: Italy v England, Stadio Olimpico, Rome (kick-off 2.15pm GMT)
Saturday Feb 9th: England v Wales, Twickenham Stadium (kick-off 4.45pm GMT).
Saturday Feb 24th: Scotland v England, BT Murrayfield (kick-off 4.45pm GMT)
Saturday March 9th: England v Ireland, Twickenham (kick-off 4.45pm GMT).
Saturday March 16th: France v England, Groupama Stadium, Lyon (kick-off 8pm GMT)
