{"id":268423,"date":"2025-11-07T08:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268423\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:39:09","slug":"a-player-is-always-selected-for-their-club-thats-not-quite-the-case-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268423\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A player is always selected for their club… that\u2019s not quite the case here’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Steve Borthwick expects the return of Marcus Smith<\/a> to bring a ruthless streak to England\u2019s attack against Fiji<\/a> at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Smith is one of seven new faces in the starting XV following a successful start to the autumn against Australia, with Fin Smith selected ahead of George Ford<\/a> at fly-half and Ollie Lawrence<\/a> returning at outside centre after recovering from Achilles surgery.<\/p>\n

Ellis Genge captains England<\/a> for the third time due to regular skipper Maro Itoje<\/a> being confined to a bench role because of a lower limb injury that has limited his ability to train this week.<\/p>\n

Borthwick\u2019s quest to build squad depth ahead of the 2027 World Cup continues with Chandler Cunningham-South\u2019s first start at number eight.<\/p>\n

Experimentation will cease for New Zealand\u2019s visit to Twickenham on Saturday week, but for now Marcus Smith has the chance to take advantage of Freddie Steward\u2019s hand injury by justifying Kevin Sinfield\u2019s view that he developed into a \u201cworld class\u201d full-back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last 3 Meetings<\/p>\n

Average Points scored<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

England\u2019s main flaw in a dominant win against the Wallabies was the failure to turn pressure into points, but Borthwick insists the 26-year-old Harlequin\u2019s kicking and running games can make the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really hopeful there that we\u2019ll see Marcus in space in unstructured opportunities,\u201d head coach Borthwick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in the stadium is going to be excited when that ball comes into his hands in a bit of space.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a brilliant player. You see him out there at the end of training, he\u2019s always working to add to his game. He\u2019s hungry and he\u2019s exciting. That\u2019s what I want to see from him on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast weekend we had opportunities, but unfortunately we didn\u2019t convert them. We\u2019ve been working on that this week to make sure we support on line break situations, finish and get the points on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year after taking England\u2019s autumn by storm as a fly-half, Marcus Smith has slipped to third in the pecking order at 10 behind Fin Smith and Ford, leaving full-back as his best route into the side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of good players here. Whereas a player is always selected for their club, sometimes that\u2019s not quite the case here and the role changes,\u201d Borthwick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat produces challenges for us and in the environment because they all want to play, but I\u2019d much rather it that way than the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

British and Irish Lions<\/a> flanker Tom Curry<\/a> continues as a replacement as he builds match fitness following his return from wrist surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom hadn\u2019t played since the Lions tour until last weekend. There was a big temptation to start him against Fiji, but we\u2019ll bring him on off the bench. He\u2019s in a really good place,\u201d Borthwick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t praise Tom enough. Would he want to be starting? Yes, I have no doubt about that, but he also understands the role I\u2019m asking him to play right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Borthwick expects the return of Marcus Smith to bring a ruthless streak to England\u2019s attack against Fiji…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268423","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\/268423","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=268423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}