England head coach Steve Borthwick has the unenviable task of selecting a starting XV from some of the best players in the PREM.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Right across the English top flight, there are a number of players who are really staking a claim to be on the plane for their summer Nations Championship Tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina, but what would their starting XV look like based on form alone?<\/p>\n
Well, here\u2019s our look at exactly that.<\/p>\n
Outside backs<\/p>\n
Wing was a fairly easy call to make, even with the likes of\u00a0Tommy Freeman,\u00a0Ollie Sleightholme and\u00a0Paul Brown-Bampoe\u00a0all going well recently, but we simply couldn\u2019t overlook Noah Caluori and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.<\/p>\n
Saracens man Caluori has been unstoppable in recent outings, scoring seven tries in his past three appearances for the Londoners alongside some simply gorgeous pieces of play ball-in-hand. It feels like a matter of \u2018when, not if\u2019 with regards to his Test debut, and that could certainly be sooner rather than later if his current form is anything to go by.<\/p>\n
Chiefs counterpart Feyi-Waboso has also really hit the ground running on his return from a hamstring injury, which will certainly please Borthwick following his Six Nations absence. He has quickly found his way back to his explosive best ball-in-hand, as proved right across his outings this month, and has also bagged a healthy four tries in four games to boot.<\/p>\n
Jack Willis on \u2018making peace\u2019 with England career, that Ireland rumour and the Toulouse player who is \u2018the scariest but nicest bloke at the same time\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n George Furbank\u00a0was a leading contender at 15, but his injury issues have again come to the fore, which leaves Max Malins as our top choice. The Saracens ace has excelled since shifting back to 15 \u2013 a position he actively wants to play \u2013 in recent weeks, playing a key role in the Londoners\u2019 thumping win over Sale and their narrow victory over Leicester as well.<\/p>\n Midfield<\/p>\n England\u2019s<\/a> midfield has been under the microscope in recent times, with four different partnerships deployed across their past nine Tests and six different players selected within that, but current form points to yet another fresh partnership.<\/p>\n March\u2019s PREM Player of the Month Will Wand gets the nod at 13 in this form XV, just getting in ahead of Tom Litchfield\u00a0in the process. Wand took a starring role in the Tigers\u2019 road to PREM Cup glory back in March, and carried that form on into their league outings against Bristol and Gloucester to scoop the gong. He just gives Leicester an all-court threat in that 13 channel, acting as a crucial link to the likes of Gabe Hamer-Webb and Adam Radwan, while also giving them a consistent carrying threat.<\/p>\n Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n Bath\u2019s Ollie Lawrence is our man at inside centre, beating out teammate\u00a0Max Ojomoh\u00a0and fellow England hopefuls\u00a0Seb Atkinson\u00a0and\u00a0Fraser Dingwall\u00a0in the process. Lawrence seems to have been given a new floating role to chop and change between the two centre spots in recent weeks, often giving Bath strike in the inside centre channel before then popping back up and going into those wider pockets of space, and that dual-role has seen him excel.<\/p>\n Half-backs<\/p>\n The combination in the halves possibly picks itself, with Archie McParland and Billy Searle getting the nod over the likes of\u00a0Charlie Bracken, Tom Carr-Smith\u00a0and\u00a0Fin Smith. Looking at Leicester man Searle first, he has arguably been the form 10 in the PREM all season, pushing ahead of James O\u2019Connor in the Tigers\u2019 pecking order in the process. His form has also helped him show his value with regard to a possible Test call-up, propelling him into the England conversation alongside Smith squared and George Ford, and that cannot be ignored when picking this team.<\/p>\n McParland has also benefited greatly from an extended run in the Saints side, and that has seen him go from promising hotshot to serious PREM operator in the space of just a few weeks. There were always signs with him, but this run in the absence of Alex Mitchell has seen him really hone his craft and, importantly, show his full skillset. His desire to attack the spaces and inject tempo into the attack is also something Borthwick<\/a> will like.<\/p>\n Back-row<\/p>\n Goodness gracious, the back-row was a tough pick.\u00a0Greg Fisilau,\u00a0Guy Pepper and Miles Reid have all impressed, while\u00a0Tom Willis\u00a0continues to show what England will miss ahead of his switch to France, but we\u2019ve gone for\u00a0Alfie Barbeary,\u00a0Henry Pollock and\u00a0Fitz Harding here.<\/p>\n