England team: Five takeaways as Steve Borthwick puts ‘all his eggs in one basket’ with kicking game but ‘blueprint’ for ‘Pom Squad 2.0’ emerges
Fin Smith (left) and Chandler Cunningham-South (right) have been named in England's 23 to face France this weekend
Following confirmation of England’s 23-man squad to face France in round five of the Six Nations, here are our five key takeaways from Steve Borthwick’s selection.
Kicking game here to stay
Looking at the backline selection, it’s clear that Borthwick is putting all of his eggs into one basket with the kicking game, but is that a wasted chance to change things up?
England’s kicking game has faltered in the past few weeks, with them posting 38%, 18% and 28% kicking success rates in their respective losses to Italy, Ireland and Scotland compared to the 42% success rate in their victory over Wales in round one, and despite growing calls for a shift in focus, it seems they are very much on board with the kick-first mentality.
“I don’t think the gameplan needs to change at the moment. We all believe in the plan,” Ben Spencer told members of the media on Monday.
“Last year, we had great results playing not too dissimilar to the way we do now. We haven’t gone too far away from what we did when we had 12 wins on the spin.
“In terms of the kicking game, there are loads of ways you can go about it, but if you look at the two defeats we had previously to Italy, both Ireland and Scotland kicked more than us.
“Whether it’s kick to compete, kick to score, kick to turn teams, we got a lot back in the air against Italy, our wingers were brilliant at that and that got us in an for the game.
“For 60-65 minutes, the game was there to be won. A couple of things in the last 20 minutes let us down, but it wasn’t our kicking game that cost us.”
To be fair to Spencer, it’s not necessarily the kicking game itself that is the issue with England’s attack; it’s the overreliance on it.
I can already see the arguments brewing around this. As Spencer said, Scotland and Ireland kicked more than them, and France kick more than anyone in the Six Nations, but their strategy has outdone England’s and, crucially, they use it as part of their attack, not all of it.
England have simply not had a plan B when the kicking game fails to get them moving. The strike plays that were so effective during the Autumn Nations Series have seemingly disappeared, and while against Italy the likes of Cadan Murley, Tom Roebuck and Tommy Freeman got decent change when carrying out wide, there just seems to be a lack of ambition to get the ball into their hands other than with a kick, and that was also evident with George Ford at the helm too.
Who knows, they could surprise us and look to play a completely different style of attack come Saturday night, but the selections within the backline and the noise coming out of the camp suggest that the kicking game is again going to feature prominently.
That feels like a wasted opportunity.
New playmaking unit
Avoiding mass changes is clearly being done in an effort to build some form of continuity, but it’s also to strengthen particular units. Last weekend was possibly the first time the backline had ever played together, both as a wider group but also within their specific units, but Borthwick has chosen to keep his groupings together in an effort to build some form of consistency.
The 10-12 combination of Fin Smith and Seb Atkinson is particularly interesting. Smith and Atkinson, former Worcester Warriors teammates, have an incredibly high ceiling at this level, and if they embed themselves in quickly, could easily become Borthwick’s go-to unit here and keeping them together will only boost their connection.
Atkinson’s playmaking skills and deft handling means Smith can sit back in those slightly deeper pockets he enjoys for Northampton, but also gives Smith a big ball-carrier alongside him if needed too.
There were glimpses of quality between them last weekend, with a lot of England’s good bits coming via their connection, but their errors just came off the back of misreading one another, and that will only be ironed out with time together. If they can work those small lapses, this could be a tidy pairing.
Back-row balance
The introduction of Ollie Chessum into the back-row does seem to give the unit a bit more balance, which was much-needed if truth be told.
Borthwick has made no secret that he wanted the whole of his back-row to target the breakdown, but this Six Nations they have been second-best in that department. A change certainly felt needed. Chessum is certainly no novice in the breakdown, but his style of play should just change the dynamic of the back-row a touch and importantly keep more players on their feet in the defensive line.
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Crucially, it also gives England an extra jumper at the lineout, which again has not quite fired as Borthwick would have wanted this Championship. The towering Leicester lock was England’s main point of call at the lineout earlier in the Championship, claiming a combined 15 in their opening three Tests and a further three in his brief cameo off the bench against Italy as well, and has also been used as their main defensive option as well to good effect.
The Leicester man also excelled in this role for the British and Irish Lions in the summer, which is just another tick in his box, but his selection just adds a touch more stability to the back-row combination.
No longer an experiment
It’s been brewing for a while, but it seems Tommy Freeman will be England’s number 13 for the foreseeable future.
Eyebrows were potentially raised when the conversation first began of moving the Northampton Saints man into midfield from the wing a few years ago, initially at club level, but he has steadily shown to be just as effective in his new position and is potentially viewed more as a centre who covers wing than the other way round.
Freeman’s skill sets certainly suit the role, and even within England’s kick-first attacking approach, he still fits this system well. Freeman would always come off his wing and look for work in or around the traditional 13-channel, but putting him here from the start just means he won’t need to go sniffing around for it, the ball will just naturally come out to him in that area of the pitch. His time out on the wing also allows him to see slightly different spaces than a traditional centre, but balances that with genuine power and punch in the carry in a deadly mix.
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Making the move from the wing to 13 is a challenge for any player, just look at how long it took the likes of George North to succeed in that spot for instance, but a lot of comes down to minutes on the pitch, and Freeman has a decent chunk of that at Test level now.
This start is his fourth of the Six Nations with 13 on his back, with just one appearance coming on the wing, and that also follows two previous starts in three outings in the white jersey between the end of last year’s Championship and the 2025 Autumn Nations Series.
It seems he is very much making the 13 shirt his.
Is this the blueprint?
The Pom Squad has simply not fired to the levels we saw back in November, but is this selection the blueprint for the Pom Squad 2.0? In November, the Pom Squad came on with England looking to explode away from the opposition, and the likes of Alex Coles, Tom Curry and Henry Pollock just accelerated that with their all-out intent around the park, but the bench selection against France is very different to that of the autumn.
Luke Cowan-Dickie and Chandler Cunningham-South, only given limited minutes in Rome, should properly reinforce England’s carrying stock and give them two extra battering rams to fight it out in the tight exchanges, taking some of the load off Ben Earl in the process. Sam Underhill is also one of Borthwick’s chief defensive leaders, and bringing him on when the Test is tight should just take England’s defence up another gear. Pollock’s role is as unique as his personality, and he will again be tasked with bringing that sort of buzz and energy he has done previously.
It just has a slightly different feel to it. It’s more heavy-duty, it’s more in the Springboks’ Bomb Squad ilk than anything else, and if Borthwick brings them on in the right moments, they could bring some serious impact.
