England squad: Winners and losers including Steve Borthwick’s ‘perplexing’ call as Bath’s rising star fills Henry Pollock’s void
Following the announcement of Steve Borthwick’s 36-man training squad to continue preparations for the international window, we pick our winners and losers.
An England XV will tackle a France XV at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on Saturday, 21 June, with much of the squad selected for that fixture set to go on tour to Argentina and the USA.
Borthwick is set to name that official touring squad on Monday, 23 June.
The head coach’s latest squad welcomes players from the Premiership finalists, victors Bath and runners-up Leicester Tigers.
We dive into the squad to select our winners and losers.
Winners
Ben Spencer
After masterminding the demise of Bristol Bears and Leicester Tigers, the Bath captain secures a recall to the England squad and rightly so.
Ben Spencer has arguably been the form scrum-half in the Premiership this season and produced his best performances alongside Finn Russell in the biggest matches, including the Challenge Cup Final against Lyon.
A masterful tactician, Spencer has flexed his leadership capabilities this season, guiding the West Country outfit to three titles this campaign.
The England coaching team often overlook the Bath star in favour of the likes of Alex Mitchell, Jack van Poortvliet and Harry Randall, but perhaps this tour will be different. Looking over the squad, George Ford looks to be a frontrunner, along with Jamie George to captain the side, but perhaps Spencer should enter that conversation too.
Guy Pepper
Borthwick is not shy to reward form, particularly when it comes to the young up-and-coming Premiership talents, highlighted by Henry Pollock’s debut in the Six Nations, and he has done so again with Guy Pepper’s selection.
The Bath back-rower has been superb all season for Johann van Graan’s charges but was particularly brilliant in the absence of Sam Underhill, who was suspended for the final. His disallowed try showed his pace, power and athleticism.
The 22-year-old is just another impressive England flanker off the conveyor belt.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso
The Exeter Chiefs star will still be gutted that he missed out on a British and Irish Lions spot, but as shown by Zander Fagerson, injuries can come at the most unfortunate of times.
It’s the brutality of professional sport but there is still a glimmer of hope for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso as he returns to the Test fold for England and can put himself in prime position to book a flight to Australia at a later date.
Borthwick could have quite easily have gone with a plethora of Premiership wingers who starred this season but instead opted for the match fitness-light speedster. The game against the France XV gives him a small taste of international rugby and the ideal platform to launch his comeback.
Inexperienced props
The next generation of England front-rowers take centre stage in the upcoming window with Will Stuart and Ellis Genge away with the British and Irish Lions.
Fin Baxter has quickly cemented his place in the national squad, and so has Joe Heyes, but this July we could really see the emergence of Trevor Davison, and Asher Opoku-Fordjour.
Opoku-Fordjour is held in such high regard that he trained with the Lions and will be eager to make the most of his opportunity while the regular starters are in Australia.
The same is true for Bevan Rodd, who has been relentlessly hammering at the door for higher honours but has regularly been overlooked.
Steve Borthwick
England are without 13 of their best during the mid-year internationals but Borthwick is still able to name a fierce-looking squad. This is just another indication of just how much depth the head coach has at his disposal.
That is highlighted by the winners listed above but the excellent talents listed below in the losers section.
Losers
Injury concerns
A nine-man list of injured players accompanied the England squad release with four of which still undergoing rehabilitation. They are: Ben Curry, Fraser Dingwall, George Furbank and Harry Randall.
The first three of the quartet could be considered unlucky not to crack call-ups for the Lions squad while Randall would have been eager to impress in England colours after struggling in the Six Nations.
Curry, Dingwall and Furbank will hope to be fit come the tour to the Americas as they are nailed-on starters, unless Borthwick opts to really test the squad’s depth.
Meanwhile, the likes of Joe Batley, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Lozowski, George Martin and Ollie Sleightholme are all set to miss the tour through injury. With the exception of perhaps Martin and Lawrence, the tour provided an opportunity to really press for further involvement in future squads.
Dropped players
The inclusion of the Premiership finalists means that Borthwick has swung the axe, dropping Afolabi Fasogbon, Richard Capstick, George Kloska, Tom Lockett, Tom Pearson, Charlie Bracken, Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, and Will Porter from his squad.
As mentioned above, the head coach is giving young props the opportunity to shine but that hasn’t extended to Gloucester star Fasogbon. Still, he is only 20 years old and is bound to get recalled at some point.
Pearson and Ma’asi-White are arguably the most unlucky players not to make the cut, considering their form this season, particularly in the latter stages of their respective campaigns. The former is a victim of the depth in the back-row while the latter is unfortunate to miss out considering the uncertainty around the number 12 jersey.
Premiership final wingers
Only one of the four speedsters who started the Premiership final on Saturday have impressed Borthwick and his coaching team enough to make the squad for the France XV team.
Adam Radwan is arguably the unluckiest of the lot after a stunning start to his time at Leicester Tigers with a perfect strike rate in his first 11 matches since making the switch from Newcastle Falcons. Meanwhile, his team-mate Ollie Hassell-Collins has shown an uptick in form recently but obviously not enough of an improvement to change Borthwick’s mind.
Muir is in but fellow Bath star Joe Cokanasiga has been snubbed. There are perceived issues around Cokanasiga’s ability in the air, which is a big requirement of Borthwick’s wingers and is perhaps why his team-mate got the nod.
Henry Arundell
A rather puzzling call from the England coaching team after Henry Arundell was included in the squad last week but dropped this week.
Planet Rugby has received clarification that his axing has nothing to do with the impending move to Bath and the fixture against France XV taking place outside of the official Test window.
This means that Arundell has been released for on-field reasons. On the surface, it looks to be a perplexing call but perhaps the initial call-up was to simply get a closer look at a player who hasn’t been in camp since the Rugby World Cup before determining that a full pre-season would serve him better.
Overlooked Bath stars
Seven Bath players have been included in the squad and while that number would easily rise to eight had Will Stuart not been selected for the Lions, there are still many players who would feel hard done by.
We have already mentioned Cokanasiga but back-rower Miles Reid is perhaps the unluckiest. Again, there is no shortage of excellent loose forwards in England but Reid has been nothing short of outstanding and had arguably the most impactful season of his career at Bath. He has always been a consistent performer for the club but the 26-year-old was particularly excellent.
Meanwhile, Alfie Barbeary has also excelled for Van Graan’s charges this season, making telling impacts off the bench. He is another victim of the depth in the loose trio and may rue not playing more at hooker since joining Bath from Wasps. The versatility of featuring in the front and back-row would make him a near-impossible prospect to ignore.
On the topic of the front-row, there are only two reasons for Tom Dunn’s omission; age and squad size limit. Jamie George is the only hooker over 30 years old with Curtis Langdon (27) and Theo Dan (24) included. Presumably, Borthwick can only take three hookers on tour with him and with Luke Cowan-Dickie touring with the Lions, Langdon was the next cab off the rank from the squad selected in the Six Nations squad.
If George does get an SOS at some point, Dunn would surely be in the mix but, unfortunately, the in-form and experienced Bath hooker still might not get the call.
Finally, Tom de Glanville is also unfortunate not to get a call-up after his brilliance with Bath this season. In the Premiership final, he was arguably the better full-back on the park.
