{"id":327756,"date":"2026-03-04T03:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/327756\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T03:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:42:11","slug":"steve-borthwick-wields-england-axe-and-makes-nine-changes-to-team-to-play-italy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/327756\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Borthwick wields England axe and makes nine changes to team to play Italy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Borthwick<\/a> has wielded the axe and made nine changes to his England<\/a> team from the one that lost to Ireland for Saturday\u2019s game away to Italy<\/a> in Rome, picking an entirely different back line as he seeks to salvage his side\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> campaign with the most radical selection of his tenure.<\/p>\n

Borthwick has also made three positional changes as well, moving Tommy Freeman to outside centre, Ben Earl back to number eight and Tom Curry to openside. Fin Smith has also been installed at outhalf and with Henry Pollock dropped after just one start.<\/p>\n

Seb Atkinson, Cadan Murley, Guy Pepper and Elliot Daly all come into the side to make their first appearances of this year\u2019s Six Nations. In a measure of just how radical Borthwick\u2019s selection is, only the captain Maro Itoje and the props Ellis Genge and Joe Heyes are selected in the same position as against Ireland.<\/p>\n

In the pack, Jamie George comes in for Luke Cowan-Dickie at hooker, Pepper returns to the side with Pollock returning to the bench and Alex Coles starts in the secondrow alongside Itoje. Ollie Chessum, who has arguably been England\u2019s most effective player in the championship, is among the replacements after he sat out training on Monday.<\/p>\n

On the back of dismal defeats by Scotland and Ireland, Borthwick has rolled the dice. George Ford, Fraser Dingwall, Henry Arundell and Freddie Steward drop out of the matchday 23 entirely, while Alex Mitchell\u2019s injury absence means Ben Spencer starts at scrumhalf.<\/p>\n

At outhalf, Smith is named for only his second start since last year\u2019s Six Nations despite sitting out training on Monday due to illness, while Gloucester\u2019s Atkinson is set for his Twickenham bow at inside centre, having made his debut on last summer\u2019s tour of Argentina.<\/p>\n

\"GuyGuy Pepper comes into the England backrow to face Italy. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Smith and Atkinson have not played together for England before but both were at Worcester before the club went bust in 2022. Outside them, Freeman comes back to outside centre in place of the injured Ollie Lawrence while Tom Roebuck is restored to the right wing. Murley, who endured a torrid debut against Ireland in last year\u2019s championship, replaces Arundell on the left wing while Daly comes in at fullback to replace Steward, who was hooked before half-time against Ireland.<\/p>\n

According to the rugby statistician Russ Petty, Borthwick\u2019s selection includes the most changes to an England back line ever made for a Six Nations game, having never previously made more than four.<\/p>\n

Genge and Heyes are again the props while Curry and Earl join Pepper in the backrow. On the bench, Cowan-Dickie, Bevan Rodd and Trevor Davison provide backrow cover with Chessum, Pollock and Sam Underhill among six replacement forwards. Jack van Poortvliet and Marcus Smith complete Borthwick\u2019s bench options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting a big test in Rome and it\u2019s one the players are really looking forward to,\u201d said Borthwick. \u201cWe know the challenge Italy will bring at the Stadio Olimpico, and we\u2019ve selected a team we believe will deliver the level of performance we\u2019re striving for.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n

ENGLAND (v Italy): Elliot Daly (Saracens); Tom Roebuck (Sale), Tommy Freeman (Northampton), Seb Atkinson (Gloucester), Cadan Murley (Harlequins); Fin Smith (Northampton), Ben Spencer (Bath); Ellis Genge (Bristol), Jamie George (Saracens), Joe Heyes (Leicester); Maro Itoje (Saracens, capt), Alex Coles (Northampton); Guy Pepper (Bath), Tom Curry (Sale), Ben Earl (Saracens).<\/p>\n

Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale), Bevan Rodd (Sale), Trevor Davison (Northampton), Ollie Chessum (Leicester), Sam Underhill (Bath), Henry Pollock (Northampton), Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester), Marcus Smith (Harlequins).<\/p>\n

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Find the channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Borthwick has wielded the axe and made nine changes to his England team from the one that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59241,42,132479,43,15551,57128,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-327756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-england-rugby","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-italy-rugby","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-six-nations","13":"tag-steve-borthwick","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}