England team: Five takeaways as ‘karma’ favours rookie and Pom squad ‘craze’ continues
England duo Asher Opoku-Fordjour and, inset, Tom Curry.
Following England’s announcement of their 23-man squad to face Argentina on Sunday, here are our five key takeaways from Steve Borthwick’s selection.
The top line
What a giddy position for head coach Borthwick to be in, to be still picking from a position of strength for this Autumn Nations Series finale despite losing Ollie Lawrence, Jamie George and Tom Roebuck to injury and making six changes in total to his starting England XV.
There was a time when the sufferance of casualties to front-line players would gravely weaken the capability of England’s chances from one week to the next, but this is a heady era where Borthwick is now benefiting from the interchangeability of the players in his squad.
Henry Slade, Luke Cowan-Dickie and the fit-again Elliot Daly – three very experienced operators – have been chosen to replace the hamstrung duo of Lawrence and George and the foot-affected Roebuck. That’s a serious infusion in a time of need.
Then, to keep alive the competition for places and to help share the load coming into the final match of the exhausting four-match November programme, he has seen fit to give starts to Ben Spencer, Ellis Genge and Asher Opoku-Fordjour at the expense of the benched duo of Alex Mitchell and Fin Baxter and the excluded Joe Heyes.
That trio were excellent last weekend, but the changes are a shrewd move in adding a freshness to a side coming off the back of the seminal success over the All Blacks.
‘Perfect nine’
Just 10 of the match day 23 for next Sunday in London featured 19 weeks ago against Argentina in San Juan in the 22-17 victory that clinched England their 2-0 series win, but the importance of scrum-half Spencer against the Pumas has been underlined by this latest selection.
It was a late try from Jack van Poortvliet that was ultimately the difference between the sides last time out, the sub scrum-half coming off the bench to replace the starting Spencer with just under 20 minutes remaining in Argentina.
Spencer has since provided the cover behind Mitchell, the returning British and Irish Lions tourist, in the November matches against Australia, Fiji and New Zealand, but Borthwick must have seen something in Spencer’s two summer starts against the Pumas to believe he is the perfect nine to go with next weekend and keep Mitchell in reserve.
Test starts are an incredibly rare thing for Spencer. Remember, he was already 32 years old last November when he was finally handed his first No.9 England shirt.
Those starts in the 2024 defeats to New Zealand and Australia were difficult, but he was far more comfortable coming up against the Pumas as a starter last July, shortly after Mitchell had been found wanting against the Argentinians in the Lions’ pre-tour loss in Dublin.
It’s now Spencer – not Mitchell – who has been tasked with the starting nine role and completing the hat-trick of England wins over the Argies.
Opoku-Fordjour ‘karma’
The easy thing for Borthwick to do when deciding on his starting front row for next weekend would have been to promote all three of last Saturday’s bench players, but he stopped short of this.
Promoting Genge and Cowan-Dickie for the benched Baxter and the injured George was as far as the coach got with the rotation, as he decided it would be best to keep Lions tourist Will Stuart as the sub tighthead and instead give Asher Opoku-Fordjour a start, even though his only cap so far this autumn was off the bench versus Fiji.
It’s an intriguing call. Opoku-Fordjour was only deemed good enough for bench duty behind Heyes in the two July matches against the Argentinians, but the 21-year-old is now being trusted to hold up the English scrum from the start in what will be just his second outing with the No.3 on his back.
It is definitely a case of Borthwick assessing what Opoku-Fordjour can add to the England pack as a starter, given that he already knows what Stuart brings either as the No.3 or as a sub.
For Opoku-Fordjour, it is also an opportunity to put what happened last time in San Juan against Argentina firmly behind him. While warming up, he was subjected to racial abuse and the complaint submitted by the RFU was proven. It would be karma if Opoku-Fordjour now goes out and plays the house down versus the Pumas.
Ford ‘focus’
It’s amazing how players can quickly fall from grace in the Test arena. When Fin Smith became the England No.10 in four Six Nations matches earlier this year, going on to become a British and Irish Lions squad pick, the scene seemed to be set for the 23-year-old to go on and dominate the selection.
However, the youngster appears to have paid a heavy price for that trip to Australia, where he didn’t remotely contest for Test selection against Finn Russell.
Smith’s unavailability to England unwittingly opened the door for George Ford to reassert his influence, and the veteran now has a vice-like grip on the set-up transformed by the arrival of Lee Blackett as attack coach.
A focused Ford learned all about Blackett’s way of working on that America’s tour and with the temporary assistant since appointed to lead the attack on a full-time basis, Ford’s summer with him in Argentina and the USA has allowed him to steal a march on Smith.
It was felt coming into the Autumn Nations Series that the selection battle between Ford and Smith would be an even enough contest, but it instead turned out to be a lop-sided affair where the 30-something has taken his game to a whole new level, with the 20-something disappearing in the rear view mirror.
Ford took by the scruff of the neck the matches against Australia and the All Blacks, and he has now been chosen for his third start this month, with Smith again omitted from the 23. It’s clear to say he is very much Blackett’s man to lead this transformed England attack.
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Pom squad ‘craze’
The Pom squad has become a craze this November, with head coach Borthwick revelling in the menace that his replacements have been able to wield against Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.
On all three occasions, the unleashing of the subs at the right time has helped tip the balance of the results in England’s favour, and it will be interesting if the tactic now pays dividends for the fourth successive weekend in this Test window.
It was always thought that Tom Curry was undroppable in an England context, so important was he viewed in the breakdown battles over the years.
However, his run of serious injuries has been rotten, and having him appear instead from the bench has so far worked a treat in getting him into the action at a point in time when he can sharply influence the result, rather than go and lay the foundation for it as a starter.
It’s a canny case of less is more from the brilliant back-rower, and the benefit has been to allow Guy Pepper to find his feet as a Test-level blindside and for Sam Underhill to show his undoubted international openside class, with Curry then arriving to brilliantly finish the job.
Curry is just one of four players retained on this week’s bench, along with Stuart, Henry Pollock and Marcus Smith. The benched pair of Baxter and Mitchell, along with Theo Dan and Charlie Ewels, are the ‘new’ subs. Here’s to them earning their Pom squad stripes.
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