England team: Five takeaways as Steve Borthwick makes ‘significant switch in thinking’ but continues to ‘worship’ his 6/2 bench split
Henry Pollock and Tom Curry have been upgraded to start versus Ireland with Marcus Smith, inset, recalled to the England bench
Following the confirmation of England’s 23-man Six Nations squad to face Ireland this weekend, here are our five key takeaways from Steve Borthwick’s selection.
The top line
After all the post-Murrayfield fallout speculating the number of changes England must make after their deflating 31-20 Round Two defeat, head coach Borthwick decided three was the optimum number as he looks to get his team’s 2026 Six Nations title bid back on track.
With red-carded left wing Henry Arundell freed to play following a disciplinary hearing that took place earlier on Tuesday, there was just a single alteration to the backline with Ollie Lawrence chosen at outside centre, a selection that resulted in Tommy Freeman moving out to the right wing position and Tom Roebuck dropping off the team.
Freddie Steward was retained at full-back in a back-three with Arundell and the repositioned Freeman, Lawrence will partner Fraser Dingwall in the midfield, while the half-back combination of George Ford and Alex Mitchell remained intact despite Clive Woodward’s call for Ford to be axed and replaced by Fin Smith.
Moving to the forwards, the starting front five from the last day – props Ellis Genge and Joe Heyes, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie, and second-rows Maro Itoje and Ollie Chessum – is chosen to start again, but a sledgehammer has been taken to the back-row.
Murrayfield replacements Tom Curry and Henry Pollock have been elevated to start with Guy Pepper and Sam Underhill dropping to the bench, but Borthwick has Pollock pencilled in for the No.8 role, which means that Ben Earl will switch to openside.
England’s six/two bench split left them short on options following Arundell’s first-half sending off, but they will persist with the same tactic against the Irish after selecting two different backs subs.
The positional inflexibility of scrum-half Ben Spencer and out-half Fin Smith resulted in Smith having to play as an emergency inside centre when he came on against Scotland, but this limitation has been counteracted by the naming of a more versatile duo, Jack van Poortvliet and Marcus Smith.
Hooker Jamie George, props Bevan Rood and Trevor Davison, and lock Alex Coles are the four replacement forwards retained on the bench, with the demoted Pepper and Underhill joining them on this occasion.
Why Henry Arundell is free for England selection despite his red card against Scotland
Re-igniting the attack
The bouquets tossed in England’s direction dramatically turned from roses to weeds on Valentine’s Day, with Scotland unleashing yet another unstoppable Calcutta Cup assault. Ever since Lee Blackett became part of Borthwick’s firm, the conversation surrounding the team’s back-line potency became giddy.
It was as if the ex-Bath assistant was the final piece of the jigsaw in Borthwick’s side transitioning from good to great and electrifying stadiums.
The hype reached such an extent that The Times last Friday, on the eve of the Scottish match, published a piece titled: ‘England make elite look bad – and they want credit for it’.
Let’s just be polite and say the arrogance this claim smacked of didn’t age well. With England sent homeward to think again, they have opted to resurrect the Lawrence-Dingwall midfield partnership and abandon experimenting with Freeman in there and moving him back to the wing.
The Lawrence-Dingwall axis was twice successfully deployed in November, most famously in the win over New Zealand, and Borthwick has now returned to it after Lawrence missed the start of the Six Nations with a knee injury.
It’s a huge show of faith by the head coach amid criticism that Dingwall was an impediment to getting the England attack purring and doesn’t have what it takes to become a world-class Test centre. Borthwick obviously doesn’t agree, retaining the under-fire No.12 and changing his midfield partner against the Irish.
Roebuck struggled coping with the pressured situation away to Scotland, with England a wide man down for 30 minutes due to Arundell’s sin-binning and 20-minute red card, so it makes sense to move Freeman back from midfield to wing, the area where he is most dangerous.
With Ford and Steward continuing at fly-half and full-back, despite calls for Fin Smith and George Furbank to be considered, England are very much of the mindset that there is no need for wholesale changes post-Scotland to reignite their attack. Just one is enough in their eyes.
Brutal reminder shakes up back-row
While the single change in backline personnel isn’t a jaw-dropper, given that Borthwick is reprising a midfield combo that did the business against the All Blacks just 13 weeks ago, what he has decided to do with the back-row is an admission that he had become complacent with his selection in this area and that he got the plan he had for it in Scotland all wrong.
The trio of Pepper, Underhill and Earl was his selection in five of England’s last six matches, the only change being a start for Chandler Cunningham-South against Fiji with Underhill absent. But he has now demoted both Pepper and Underhill following the hammering at Murrayfield and handed ‘Pom Squad’ pair Curry and Pollock starts with Earl elbowed from No.8 to blindside.
It’s a significant switch in thinking. Curry last started for England 11 months ago in Wales, while Pollock was never a starter in his seven caps so far.
Becoming consumed with his ‘Pom Squad’ strategy, thinking the energy of Curry and Pollock was best suited to the latter stages of matches, was shown up as flawed in Scotland as England were killed in the opening 20 minutes and the result beyond their reach as soon as they went 24-10 down with less than half an hour played.
It was a brutal reminder that Test games can still very much be convincingly won at the start of the matches, not with the second-half unleashing of the cavalry.
Borthwick’s latest selection is an admission that, with England winning, he became too comfortable with the Pepper-Underhill-Earl combination rather than keeping the selection open.
Sorely kicked in the goolies by the Scots, he is now going for broke early versus Ireland by starting with the breakdown nuisance of Curry and the in-your-face boisterousness of Pollock. Those qualities should ensure there is no repeat slow start next Saturday.
Centurion Maro
Borthwick was effusive in his team announcement praise for skipper Itoje, who will become an England Test centurion next Saturday. He is just the ninth English men’s player to reach this milestone behind Ben Youngs (127), Dan Cole (118), Jason Leonard (114), Owen Farrell (112), Ford (107), George (107), Courtney Lawes (105) and Danny Care (101).
It’s a well-deserved accolade, coming 10 years on from his February 2016 debut away to Italy in Rome, but Saturday’s clash with Ireland means it’s a milestone arriving with a heap of intrigue following his unusual involvements the past two Saturdays.
Itoje was only chosen for the Round One clash against Italy as a ‘Pom Squad’ member, and his impact off the bench wasn’t quality as he was immediately yellow-carded. Then, recalled to start in Scotland, his influence was minimal, and he was hooked on 58 minutes rather than someone else making way for Coles.
These recent experiences are a far cry from his status as a forward who had played the full 80 minutes in 30 successive Six Nations matches, a run dating back to the start of the 2020 tournament.
Of course, the sad passing of his mother impacted his preparation for this year’s edition, but after his mishaps against the Welsh and the Scots, he has it all to do to produce a performance against the Irish befitting of a world-class player making his 100th appearance. Time to repay Borthwick’s show of faith with a quality engine one-room display.
The value of Marcus Smith
With England getting so horribly exposed by their limited replacement backline cover following last weekend’s Arundell red carding, an aspect of Borthwick’s team to face Ireland that was always going to catch the eye was whether he stuck or twisted with his now familiar six/two bench split.
The head coach was once a firm believer in the five/three option. For three of England’s four Autumn Nations Series matches in 2024, his preference was exactly that, but he now worships in the church of the six/two. Just once in his team’s last 14 matches did he plump for five/three – away to the USA last July on the summer tour.
For every other game, six/two has been the tactic, but Murrayfield was the first time the team got left so exposed. Essentially, Spencer and Fin Smith are positional specialists, expertly knowing their roles as respective nine and 10 operators, and this positional inflexibility left England down when scrambling to cope with Arundell’s enforced absence.
Rather than go with an extra reserve back against the Irish, Borthwick has steadfastly stuck with a six/two pick but has changed his two sub backs, naming Van Poortvliet and Marcus Smith to better cover off all the potential backline eventualities.
They are not a regularly chosen sub combination: You have to go back to the Round Four win over Italy in March last year to find the last time they were Borthwick’s chosen 22/23 players. But this weekend’s selection is a major coup for Smith.
Being absent last weekend only highlighted his positional value, and it’s a lesson that the head coach shouldn’t forget in his six/two selections going forward.
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