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AS England limped into Le Touquet after being beaten by Fiji, the preparations for their World Cup opener against Argentina in Marseille on Saturday were overshadowed. The blame game was under way, with former England coach Eddie Jones castigating the RFU for failing to provide him with enough good young players to undertake a post 2019 England rebuild. Now reincarnated as Australia coach, Jones said: “You've got to look at why you're not bringing talent through,” criticising the RFU's player pathway structure presided over by his former allies, chief executive Bill Sweeney and performance director Conor O'Shea.
Jones conveniently forgot to mention his own selection policy resembled a turbocharged roulette wheel. During his seven years in charge, before being sacked at the end of last year, he had given 76 players a senior debut, picking no less than a staggering 112 international players. In the process he also devalued England selection and training camps by calling up almost 200 Premiership players.
A significant percentage of those attending training were summarily dismissed by Jones, many never to be considered again, with the dent to their confidence due to his profligacy as a selector left to their club coaches to repair.
His Red Rose head coach successor, Steve Borthwick, is reportedly more considerate in his feedback to players cut from training squads. However, it has not stopped him from spinning the wheel during his World Cup training camps this summer, before opting for a risk-averse final squad of 33 – which he endorsed in full, despite having a day and a half to make changes after the Fiji debacle.
Borthwick's reprieve of players, 17 of them senior pros from the 2019 World Cup, based almost entirely on past form and experience, reflected a deeply conservative view of selection. At the same time it failed to address the rapidly declining standards on show during the four August warm-up matches.
It meant Borthwick failing to grasp the opportunity to start rebuilding at this World Cup by giving England an infusion of new blood, preferring instead to select players he had worked with alongside Jones in 2019, despite them struggling to find their former prowess.
This included losing three of their five 2023 Six Nations Tests, and given that England then lost three of their four warm-up internationals, culminating in the 30-22 defeat by their careers, despite the urgent need Fiji at Twickenham, it was a clear for England to find alternatives with example of rewarding failure. Yet, no the 2024 Six Nations coming hard on player was dropped from the squad the heels of this World Cup, and the despite a series of poor, uninspired, question-marks over Borthwick's disjointed performances – in which selection policy mount. the only win was a lucky escape at The number of overseas non-English qualified players currently home against Wales.
Borthwick also persisted with the in the Premiership may not give fraught policy of selecting only one Borthwick the player depth his specialist No.8 in Billy Vunipola, predecessors enjoyed. However, it despite his high tackle ban making is still a straightforward exercise him ineligible to play Argentina. to pick a team for an England trial
Add to that the favouritism shown match from the players discarded by to scrum-halves Ben Youngs and Borthwick that would give any World Danny Care, both in the twilight of Cup starting team from his squad of 33 a run for their £100,000 per man tournament fee. Here is an “Unselected 23”, including up-and-coming players, which proves the point: Starting XV: Tommy Freeman; Caden Murley, Sam James, Alex Lozowski, Tom Roebuck; Joe Simmonds, Raffi Quirke; Val Rapava Ruskin, Jamie Blamire, Nick Schonert, Nick Isiekwe, Jonny Hill, Ted Hill, Tom Pearson, Zach Mercer.
Bench: Jack Yeandle, Tom West, Will Collier, Chandler Cunningham-South, Alex Dombrandt; Harry Randall, Orlando Bailey, Adam Radwan.
Even then, there are numerous other players worthy of selection. If, for example, Borthwick wanted a bulldozer No.8 to replicate Billy Vunipola, there is a ready-made replacement in the formidable Dave Ewers, a European and Premiership double winner with Exeter, who has just joined Ulster. Ewers, 32, should have had a keen Test rivalry with Vunipola over the last eight years. This would have benefited both players, and England, but he was never given the chance by Jones, and Borthwick has followed suit. The jettisoning of Mercer and Dombrandt is equally hard to fathom, and the script gets even stranger when you consider the potential of two other overlooked No.8s, Newcastle's Callum Chick and the new Saracens signing, Tom Willis.
The weakness of the squad Borthwick has picked is that competition for places has been subverted by a willingness to select too many players who are out of form, fitness, or time, but have, with the notable exception of Courtney Lawes, been given special dispensation because of their past contributions.
England's woes will not have been lost on Argentina's coach, Michael Cheika, who inflicted one of the most damaging World Cup defeats England have suffered as coach of the Wallaby side which sent them crashing out in the pool stage of the 2015 World Cup as host nation.
Cheika took Australia on to the 2015 final, and it is reasonable to assume that a coach with his pedigree will ensure the Pumas recognise England's flaws, and how to exploit them, but do not become overconfident.
Argentina will arrive in Marseille with an advantage in preparation, and a settled side which is primed to attack and has plenty of firepower. A solid pack is given a dynamic edge by a potent back row, including man-mountain blindside Marcos Kremer, brilliant openside Juan Martin Gonzalez, and abrasive No.8 Pablo Matera.
Combine that with a strong-running backline, sparked by fly-half Santiago Carreras, lethal finishers in Matteo Carreras and the veteran Juan Imhoff, and a marksman goal-kicker in Emiliano Boffelli, and they deserve to be firm favourites.
England will have to raise their game from the basement to the roof to come away with a victory. Otherwise, the World Cup will bypass Borthwick and his squad.
