George Ford is likely to start at fly-half when England begin their autumn internationals campaign against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Sale Sharks No 10 enjoyed an outstanding summer tour with Steve Borthwick\u2019s side, helping to orchestrate two victories against Argentina and one against the USA, and appears to have stated a strong case for selection.<\/p>\n
Fin Smith, whose Northampton side top the Prem table after five rounds, became established as the first-choice fly-half during the Six Nations this year before embarking on the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia.<\/p>\n
However, along with his playing ability, the 32-year-old Ford\u2019s tactical expertise is highly valued in the England camp, and if he starts on Saturday it could indicate Borthwick regards him as first-choice for the Rugby World Cup in 2027.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Smith and the first-choice scrum-half Alex Mitchell play together for Northampton but Ford, who has 102 England caps, brings a different set of skills with his perceptive tactical kicking and threat of drop-goals. Sale, in contrast to the in-form Saints, are seventh in the Prem with two wins from five matches.<\/p>\n
Borthwick has a wealth of options in the back-line and the Northampton wing Tommy Freeman is being strongly considered to start at outside-centre. Mitchell backed his clubmate, who scored four tries against Saracens<\/a> last Friday, to thrive if he switches from the wing to No 13.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it will be good. He\u2019s a quality player who has a lot of facets to his game with his power and how he works in the air,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cHis confidence is through the roof and his form is amazing. We knew when he came through the academy that he\u2019s got everything: speed, power, height. He understands the game. We know if he puts that all together he\u2019s one hell of a player.\u201d<\/p>\n The hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie has welcomed the \u201cTest-match animal\u201d Tom Curry, his Sale teammate, back into the England fold. Curry has recovered from having surgery on a wrist problem after the Lions tour and is in contention to start in the back row against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s built differently,\u201d said Cowan-Dickie, who will reach 50 England caps if he plays at Twickenham. \u201cI think he showed that in the Lions. It\u2019s a cliche: \u2018He\u2019s a Test-match animal,\u2019 \u2013 but he is. For his game and mental approach, he could have not played for a year, and I\u2019d still put him in my team.\u201d<\/p>\n Curry appeared six times for the British & Irish Lions in Australia but has missed the start of Sale\u2019s domestic campaign due to the surgery. \u201cHe\u2019s a workhorse,\u201d Cowan-Dickie said.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see it out on the field, half the time he\u2019s limping because he\u2019s put his body on the line. But he\u2019s still going and you always feed off that sort of stuff. He was playing with that wrist injury for ages. He\u2019s another guy who\u2019s mentally tough. It\u2019s always a bonus for me personally. He\u2019s one of these best back-rowers, if not the best back-rower in the world so I\u2019m buzzing that he\u2019s on my team.\u201d<\/p>\n Cowan-Dickie has also endured serious injuries himself since his England debut in 2015. \u201cI\u2019ve stuck around \u2013 they don\u2019t call me the cockroach for no reason,\u201d Cowan-Dickie joked. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of injuries. Would I be here today if I didn\u2019t play through them? Maybe not. I think it\u2019s made me robust.\u201d<\/p>\n Cowan-Dickie also said he is continuing to the feel benefits of giving up alcohol. \u201cLoving it \u2013 I\u2019ve not thought about once,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how long it has been: 17 or 18 months, and I feel way better for it. My body is better for it. Touch wood I have not been injured, I have lost a bit of weight, and I\u2019m feeling physically better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Ford is likely to start at fly-half when England begin their autumn internationals campaign against Australia at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-244717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}