Naming the England training squad on Monday is the easy part for Steve Borthwick. Naming the England 23 to face South Africa in Johannesburg will be an altogether more difficult exercise. Does the the head coach go for broke? Select a side he thinks has the best chance of beating the world champions in their own backyard? Such a result would give him free rein to do as he wishes in the year leading up to the 2027 World Cup.
The odds are against such a result but nothing is impossible. Or does he throw a few youngsters into the mix? We are always hearing about the tremendous young talent coming through. Well, let’s see it. In the context of such a selection, victory would be a bonus, with the performance and potential shown the expected yardstick.
Selecting for the second of these options — the one that gives them a little less chance of beating the Springboks in July but more come the World Cup — is anything but easy. It’s a matter of selecting on the basis not so much of what players have done, but what they might do. That is a tricky selection skill. It’s the sort where Jonny Wilkinson is picked to make his debut for an England team that will go on to lose 76-0 before winning the World Cup. It demands guts and vision. It is not straightforward.
Wilkinson, left, trudges off the pitch in Brisbane after the 76-0 defeat by Australia on the infamous “Tour from Hell” in 1998, when Sir Clive Woodward blooded several young players who later played a part in their 2003 World Cup triumphColorsport/Shutterstock/Rex
Borthwick takes a lot of flak for his conservatism but as far as the personnel he picks goes, that is unfair. He isn’t afraid of boldness in terms of players. It’s the way the team then plays that is the real problem, or rather it is in the Six Nations when he feels the pressure of that most wonderfully claustrophobic of tournaments.
So, stage one: the squad selection. He has already included Noah Caluori, Saracens’ teenage sensation, earlier this season. Alas, he didn’t feature in the Six Nations. But it was at least a statement. He was on the radar. How we in the media pine for a spectacular talent to burst on to the scene, to outleap the short but springheeled Cheslin Kolbe and show himself capable of scoring tries a few levels up from the Gallagher Prem. If he is going to be a unique attacking weapon in Australia, Borthwick has to give him the opportunity to prove himself soon. The more caps, the more experience, the better.
If you believe he is a potential matchwinner at the World Cup, he has to garner as much Test-match time as possible. Time enough to prove his worth but — equally important — time to make and learn from mistakes.
The Prem’s leading tryscorer is not set to turn up at Ellis Park and soar through the thin air en route to five tries. It’s more likely that the Springboks will expose him defensively. Good. If he is the real thing, he will learn. Play him, if not against South Africa, then against Fiji and Argentina. Straightforward? Not at all. Because England have a pair of outstanding wings in Exeter Chiefs’ Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman. On form and Test evidence, both are miles ahead of the rookie Caluori (indeed Tom Roebuck and Henry Arundell also have claims).
Caluori, of Saracens, is the Prem’s leading tryscorer and has twice scored five times in a match this seasonGetty
Fifth choice on form, if he does start this summer it will probably be at the expense of Borthwick’s best, most accomplished wing. Freeman would not, of course, be dropped. He would be moved to outside centre where he yearns to play. The problem is that, so far, he hasn’t looked anything like as good in the centre as he is on the wing.
His defensive reading of a game is first-rate but his running lines and quality of distribution are more predictable in the first case and all over the place in the second. Even so, he has the knack of scoring. A try a Test in the 2025 Six Nations and three, predominantly playing centre, in this year’s championship.
His spatial awareness is superb. But perhaps the freedom of playing in the wide channels enables him to pose more of a threat with those exquisite late angles we see for Northampton. It’s quality of ball England must provide him, not quantity. England have been guilty of using him to crash, rather than carve.
If Borthwick is to select Caluori, 19, Freeman has to play in what has, to date, been his inferior position. There are good reasons to continue with the experiment. England do not possess world-class outside centres, there is a hole waiting to be filled. Ollie Lawrence is struggling to even look like a Test No13. There’s a sharpness missing. Potentially Freeman is the pick of them, but what he needs is time. England’s back line could be immeasurably better for choosing the long over short-term selection.
Freeman is a truly world-class performer on the wing but has struggled to deliver on his promise at centreBob Bradford/CameraSport/Getty
The Western Force head coach, Simon Cron, said of Zac Lomax, another Australian recruit from rugby league: “Can he attack as a 13 and defend on the wing or defend at 13 and attack on the wing?” This is the sort of question England should be asking themselves of players such as Freeman.
That’s why my scepticism from the autumn internationals has been replaced with a conviction that England should not pick their first-choice left wing; that they should instead opt for a world-class wing at centre and choose an uncapped teenager to fill one of the few shirts where England has a world-class incumbent.
The easy part of building to the World Cup has been the choice of the forthcoming squad. Having the courage to play Caluori this summer and stick with Freeman at No13 — now there’s a statement to get the critics off Borthwick’s back. And if Caluori has a horrid time of it in Johannesburg, there must only be sympathy and support from those of us who yearn for a bold and balanced England in attack with one eye on 2027, the other on a driving maul. That’s a promise.