Borthwick knows what he wants at 9

STEVE Borthwick, who took over from Eddie Jones as England head coach in late 2022, hasn’t had much time in the saddle but he will definitely want to put his own stamp and authority on this squad. He would already have communicated how he wants to move forward and leave the past behind. What you will find is that he will revert back to where he wants England to be when they were at their best. To start off with, it’s about being a really strong set-piece team, having stellar lineout accuracy and physicality on defence.

- NEIL DE HOCK

Then, with Richard Wigglesworth having been brought in as attack coach, England will look to expand their game. In the official 41-man training squad, Borthwick selected three scrum-halves in the form of Danny Care, Ben Youngs and Jack van Poortvliet. It shows me that Steve is looking to half-backs with plenty of experience. If you look at the half-back pairing of World Cup-winning teams over all the years, you’d probably say that they were the best in that era and at that time. It’s very rare that you look at teams that have won World Cups and their nine-ten combinations weren’t actually the best.

Between Care and Youngs there are over 200 Test caps. Care’s selection is an interesting one because he was in the wilderness for a while. It looked like his international playing days were over but then he hit some good form again for Harlequins. As always, he’s been talismanic for them. He has stuck his hand up again to say, “I’m still keen and willing to play for my country!”

It’s interesting that Borthwick has reverted to two very experienced scrum-halves, who are tried and tested, instead of what was done previously under Jones where Youngs was the experienced player sandwiched between two younger up-and-coming nines. But it’s also worth remembering that Youngs and Van Poortvliet have played under Wigglesworth at Leicester Tigers. Wigglesworth, who played 33 Tests for England, will know them well and in most cases it’s better the player you know. When it comes to the 22-year-old Van Poortvliet, who has earned nine caps for England, he is a really good number nine. He is a solid player, possesses great skills and makes very few mistakes.