Mistake to select Tom and not Ted

NICK CAIN

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Ted Hill must be wondering what else he has to do to get back into an England squad following the Bath blindside flanker’s omission from the 36-man party announcement for the summer tour of Japan and New Zealand.

Hill has shown that he has all the requirements for a Test blindside over the course of Bath’s resurgence this season. He has the work-rate, speed, tenacity, power, and physique to make an impact at the highest level, yet he is left out of a back row contingent which includes four opensides who cover very similar territory, as well as blind-side Ethan Roots, No.6/No.8 Chandler Cunningham-South, and No.8 Alex Dombrandt.

The breakaways in question are Sam Underhill, his in-form Bath team-mate, Ben Earl, who had an excellent World Cup and Six Nations, and then Ben Curry, who has had a good season for Sale. Three No.7s should have been sufficient, but England head coach Steve Borthwick also decided to take a gamble on Tom Curry, who has played less than half a match since his World Cup hip injury.

This leaves Hill, a genuine blindside at 6ft 5ins and 17st 9lbs (112kg), and an effective lineout jumper, out in the cold. He is a bigger unit than Roots (6ft 2ins, 17st 5lbs), and is the same height and weight as Charlie Ewels, the Bath lock included in the tour party, and faster than both. England do not have the biggest second row forwards – Maro Itoje is the same height as Hill and only marginally heavier – which puts a premium on having tall blindsides like Hill and Cunningham-South, who can provide a third lineout option.

Hill, who, despite being capped twice against Japan in 2018 and the USA in 2021, is still only 25, and is not the only questionable absentee in the forwards.

Deserves chance: Ted Hill has all the attributes of a Test blindside
PICTURE: Getty Images

England have not been blessed with any depth at tighthead for over six years, and this tour highlights the deficiency. The shortage of immovable No.3s could backfire in New Zealand if recent Test results, like England’s final quarter scrum implosion against South Africa in the 2023 World Cup, are any yardstick.

England will be reliant on veteran centurion Dan Cole, now 37, to hold the line against the All Blacks, who have an aggressive and disruptive loose-head in Ethan De Groot. The back-up to Cole is Bath’s Will Stuart, who is still a work in progress judging by his battle to hold the young Northampton loosehead, Manny Iyogun, in check during the second half of the Premiership final.

However, the biggest surprise was the decision by Borthwick to pick Joe Heyes as his third tighthead ahead of Northampton’s Trevor Davison, when he is still the bench understudy at Leicester to Cole. It is remarkable that Davison, who has been at the core of the Saints title-winning scrum staying solid throughout the league campaign – and also brings the significant benefit of being able to play loosehead – has been left behind in favour of a prop who is not first choice in an average Tigers scrum.

The All Blacks targeted England’s scrum the last time the teams met at Twickenham in 2022, and, as sure as there are sheep in New Zealand, they will try to torch the Red Rose scrum in this series.

The selections of Alex Mitchell and Ben Spencer at scrum-half are hard-earned, especially given that Borthwick ignored Spencer’s claims until now, and only included Mitchell in his 2023 World Cup squad after Jack van Poortvliet was injured. However, the inconsistencies in No.9 selection continue with Leicester’s Van Poortvliet and Sale’s Raffi Quirke left out, and Bristol’s Harry Randall promoted.

As a firm believer in rugby union as a game for all shapes and sizes, Randall deserves ringing plaudits for what he’s achieved. However, while his buzzing 100mph running and recycling works a treat for Bristol against the more hit-or-miss Premiership defences, the clatter in international rugby is harsh and unforgiving. It means that, at just over 12 stone soaking wet, he may not have the physicality to make the same impact at Test level, despite his guile and pace.

Elsewhere, the squad is more balanced, and rewards players who had been consistently good in the Premiership, like the Sale wing Tom Roebuck and full back Joe Carpenter, and Harlequins centre, Luke Northmore.

The same is true of Northampton’s cut-and-thrust backline, and the call-up for wing Ollie Sleightholme, their Premiership top try scorer – who was left out of my England squad in last week’s columnis richly deserved.

However, my reason for picking Gabriel Ibitoye is that he has been lethal for Bristol, despite not having quite the same silver service from his backline that Sleightholme enjoys at Saints. Added to that is my admiration for the way in which Ibitoye has grown into a wing with pace, power and bewitching footwork, in an odyssey that has taken him from Harlequins to Agen, then Montpellier, and somehow on to Tel Aviv Heat in Israel, before finding his way to Bristol.

Last, but not least, here’s hoping the competition between the two Smiths, Marcus and Fin, for the Test fly-half shirt brings out the best in both of them – and helps England find a way to beat New Zealand on their own turf.