England team: Five takeaways as ‘trust’ shown in George Furbank, ‘Pom Squad’ back in favour and Steve Borthwick’s ‘latest rookie’ gambit
George Furbank has been named as the England No.15 versus Australia with Greg Fisilau, inset, primed for a Test debut from the bench
The England team to play the Wallabies this Sunday at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham in the Nations Championship has been announced and here are our five takeaways.
The top line: 4 XV changes
Sixteen weeks after England signed off from the Nations Championship Southern Series, they will open their Northern Series in London with a team containing four alterations from the starting line-up that won 31-24 in Argentina.
There is just a single change in the backline, with the fit-again George Furbank taking over at full-back from the benched Marcus Smith. This suggests that attack-wise, Steve Borthwick liked what he saw in Santiago del Estero from the back line and is now intent on doubling down against the Wallabies.
Up front, though, there is a change to all three combinations. Another fit-again player, loosehead Fin Baxter, has got the jump on the benched Ellis Genge, who had started all eight England matches in 2026. At lock, the rested Maro Itoje is restored to the captaincy, a recall that sees Alex Coles switch to tighthead lock with George Martin dropping down to the replacements.
England’s only injury-enforced change from the team that started in the win over the Pumas is at openside. Guy Pepper was at No.7 on July 18, but an ankle injury sustained in last month’s defeat for Bath at Gloucester ruled him out of selection consideration with his place going to Ben Curry.
He last started for England on their 2025 summer tour, but he has now got the nod to start ahead of twin brother Tom, who doesn’t make the matchday 23, and Henry Pollock, who is on a six/two replacements bench that also featured uncapped back-rower Greg Fisilau.
In Furbank Borthwick trusts
It’s been a heck of a long time between Test starts for Harlequins’ new signing from Northampton. You have to go back to the Japan match in November 2024 to find the last time he wore the England No.15 shirt.
Injuries have been the bane of his international career ever since he first burst on the scene in 2020, and his rotten luck was encapsulated last July when, instead of running out at Ellis Park as he was chosen to start, he watched England lose to the Springboks from a hospital bed in Johannesburg after he took ill with appendicitis.
It’s a sad reflection on Furbank’s career that he has just 14 caps, but Borthwick hasn’t forgotten the 30-year-old and selecting him at full-back to take on the Wallabies suggests that, in the head coach’s eyes, he is the back line’s missing link.
All the other six backs – including Seb Athinson, who is making the No.12 jersey very much his own – were starters in Argentina last time out, so the coach must feel he is heading in the right direction by retaining them all and only adding Furbank to the list at the expense of his Quins’ teammate Smith.
Furbank has looked tasty in the 15/10 partnership he has formed at club level with Smith, but it’s with a different Smith, Northampton’s Fin, which is the partnership Borthwick wants the full-back relying on this Sunday.
Of course it’s nothing new. Furbank and Smith were a Saints thing in the winning of two Premiership titles in three seasons, so the connection is tried and tested at club level. The big question is whether it can now be brought to the international arena with success. Borthwick certainly thinks it can with this selection.
‘Pom Squad’ back in favour
A theme of last November’s unbeaten four-match Autumn Nations Series, which included a win over the All Blacks, was Borthwick’s reliance on a six/two bench tagged the ‘Pom Squad’ by Freddie Steward, in nodding reference to South Africa’s notorious ‘Bomb Squad’.
Borthwick had traditionally favoured a bench consisting of five forwards and three backs, but he changed tack 12 months ago and energy from a cavalry made up of six forwards and just two backs wielded influence in the sequence of victories over Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina.
This ‘Pom Squad’ was soon forgotten in 2026 as the six/two split did England no favours in a brutal fifth-place Six Nations campaign and then the Nations Championship hammering away to South Africa.
It resulted in Borthwick going five/three with his bench in the wins over Fiji and Argentina, but he has now reverted to six/two in the hope that an additional forward can be significant. Test rookie Fisilau is the extra forward, but it’s also eye-catching that the head coach has only chosen vice-captain Genge as a sub.
The last time he did this was in the aforementioned ambush win against the All Blacks, and the sentiment with this latest selection is that energetic brute force will be important if England are to get the job done in the second half with fresh impetus from the sidelines.
In fairness, he got six/two tactic spot on a year ago, but it flopped in the spring, so the jury is out on its reprise this weekend.
Itoje’s return
The great thing about rugby punditry is that everyone can have an opinion and there was chat in some quarters that centurion Itoje wasn’t a nailed-on starter for this Nations Championship opener. It was a narrative that raised an eyebrow or two, but not Borthwick’s as his Friday afternoon team naming, of course, had the Saracens forward listed at No.4.
The 32-year-old Test captain missed the July leg of the Nations Championship, with England deciding the long-serving second-row would be better off giving those matches a miss as he had skippered the British and Irish Lions the previous year and was nearly always the English player who annually clocked up most playing minutes.
Yes, Itoje’s form had been hit and miss earlier this year but, genuinely, which England player managed to avoid inconsistencies during that devastatingly disappointing Six Nations? None is the answer, so the veteran wasn’t alone in that campaign failure.
Saracens’ form this term has also had adversity – just three wins in six outings – but Itoje has looked refreshed, putting in some massive defensive shifts and demonstrating he is still the talisman in their pack.
Now it’s the turn of England to benefit from this renewed pep in his step. Having last featured when the team was losing its fourth Test in succession – away to France last March – he will be keen to get the W on Sunday.
More curious than the pre-selection chat that Itoje could be an England casualty is the identity of his second-row partner. Rather than pair him with Martin, his Saracens colleague this season after his switch from Leicester, Borthwick has instead retained Coles to start, which is a big feather in that Saints player’s cap.
He was given an enhanced Elite Player Squad contract in September for the first time, and getting into the XV ahead of Martin further highlights how much he has become a real deal at Test level.
England’s crisis of confidence: is Owen Slot asking the right questions of the wrong people?
England’s latest rookie
Under-fire Borthwick definitely needed a team selection with plenty of talking points, especially after the way he is coaching England was thrashed in a trenchant overview piece published on Friday by The Times.
Including a Test rookie then was a timely gambit to try and help the conversation surround the team that will take on the Wallabies and not get eclipsed in the fallout from an article that has left fans scratching their heads over why the RFU continue to back its man.
Anyway, enough of the latest battering Borthwick has taken. Let’s shine the light on new man Fisilau, who has been an Exeter’s ever-present this season and looks ready to take things up a few notches at Test level.
Hopefully, the 23-year-old will fare better than club colleague Ethan Roots. It was the 2024 Six Nations when he made his breakthrough, even taking the man of the match award on debut away to Italy.
However, his Test career didn’t kick on from the four caps he won that spring, and he hasn’t made an appearance since then. That is a fate the highly rated Fisilau will be keen to avoid now that he has made the England bench and is primed for a debut.
READ MORE: Wallabies team v England: Fraser McReight reaches milestone while stalwart makes welcome return