Spencer's the man to fire up England

STEVE Borthwick’s ability to get the best out of the best scrum-half in England will have a crucial bearing on how well England play at the 2023 World Cup.

The only difficulty is that he doesn’t know yet who that player is – but for me the front runner is Ben Spencer, who was involved in the first England World Cup warm-up squad training this week.

The Bath scrum-half will be 31 by the time of the tournament starts, but his experience and authority has grown during his time at the Rec, and the example he has set as captain during a difficult period for the club has been impressive.

Spencer has the full array of skills and is no slouch. He’s very quick, and is consistently the best box-kicker in the country and, in addition, is a very accomplished goal-kicker. He is also one of Bath’s most consistent players, and this makes him a prime candidate at scrum-half during a time in which no player has nailed down the No.9 shirt for England since Ben Youngs slipped down the pecking order.

At the 2019 World Cup, Eddie Jones had his banker selections like Youngs, who during Jones’ time as head coach became England’s first scrum-half to reach a century of caps.

Youngs has had much more good than bad in his Test career, and has been an unbelievable servant for England. However, at 33, he’s near the end of his time in the scrum-half shirt, and Borthwick is searching for a successor.

In every World Cup winning team the scrum-half has not only been an outstanding player, but also a key man tactically – and the responsibility they carry has grown even bigger. The amount of time scrum-halves are on the ball is more than any other player due to law changes which have resulted in them having to get to far more breakdowns and recycles than ever before. This means the physical demands of the position are huge, and the fitness of these guys in the nine shirt now is phenomenal.