{"id":594438,"date":"2026-05-20T14:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594438\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:21:11","slug":"england-latest-ranking-borthwicks-captaincy-options-after-maro-itoje-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594438\/","title":{"rendered":"England latest: Ranking Borthwick’s captaincy options after Maro Itoje admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

England head coach Steve Borthwick could be set to rest a number of players this summer for the Nations Championship, the headline name being Maro Itoje.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reports emerged\u00a0this week that the current England captain could sit out this summer\u2019s Tests against the Springboks, Fiji and Argentina, with the lock forward having exceeded the RFU\u2019s player welfare guidelines for matches in a campaign in each of the past two seasons. So far this season, Itoje has also played 20 games for club and country.<\/p>\n

Despite talk of being rested this summer, Itoje was named in an initial 42-man alignment camp on Monday (18th May), but a final decision will be made when England\u2019s final touring squad is announced next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyself and Phil Morrow (head of performance) met with Maro and had a discussion about what\u2019s right for him,\u201d the head coach told members of the media. \u201cThis last year has been a big year and a challenging year for a number of different reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make decisions when (the time) comes to announce the squad. Maro was in camp yesterday, and as agreed, went home last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, should Itoje be rested for the summer tour, it throws up the question of who will lead England<\/a> into battle across their three Tests. With that in mind, here\u2019s our look at the leading contenders.<\/p>\n

Front-runner: Ollie Chessum<\/p>\n

It seems almost certain that Ollie Chessum will captain England at some point in his career, and with Itoje potentially being rested this summer, he seems the next man up to take the armband.<\/p>\n

England boss Steve Borthwick makes latest coaching call ahead of Nations Championship<\/a><\/p>\n

Chessum is arguably the form player in the PREM at the time of writing, but it\u2019s all powered by his leadership on the field. He just seems to be positioning himself as the emotional driver within Leicester\u2019s \u2018us against the world\u2019 mentality, no more evident than his efforts in the East Midlands derby a couple of weeks ago, and his steely efforts only seem to set the tone for those around him. That attitude is exactly what Borthwick<\/a> will want to see.<\/p>\n

Around his leadership qualities, Chessum emerged from the Six Nations with real credit following a monstrous shift against France, and is a guaranteed starter looking towards the summer. That has to count for something when it comes to your captaincy choice.<\/p>\n

This feels the right time to start to think beyond the 2027 World Cup, and with Chessum pencilled in as \u2018future England captain\u2019 material, much like Itoje and even Owen Farrell before him, giving him a shot at it this July seems the right call.<\/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

In the mix: Jamie George, Ellis Genge<\/p>\n

Just underneath Chessum, you would think Jamie George and Ellis Genge are right at the top of Borthwick\u2019s list of candidates as well. Both men are current vice-captains within this side and have captained the Test side in the past, and that would certainly allow either of them to step up once again if needed.<\/p>\n

They are also two of the most-capped players at Borthwick\u2019s disposal this summer, with George on 105 and Genge on 80, and with the head coach set to rest some of his key personnel, that experience will be needed more than ever.<\/p>\n

Like Chessum, they also probably find themselves as set-in-stone starters right now at hooker and loosehead respectively, and that is also something Borthwick could factor in.<\/p>\n

\u2018It doesn\u2019t sit right with me\u2019 \u2013 England great hits out at Benhard Janse van Rensburg call-up<\/a><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t really go wrong with either of these two as your captain.<\/p>\n

Outside bet: George Ford, Ben Earl, Tom Curry<\/p>\n

Looking slightly down the pecking order, George Ford, Ben Earl and Tom Curry could be good captaincy options as well.<\/p>\n

The more obvious option would be Ford, with the Sale Sharks man serving as co-captain and then sole captain last summer on the tour of the Americas as well as being a long-standing vice-captain, but he also faces a battle to start against Fin Smith and Marcus Smith and that could be a factor against him.<\/p>\n

Earl has been part of the England leadership group for a while now and is also more than likely a starter somewhere in the back-row, so could be a good option. He is also one of the more experienced players in the mix, boasting 51 Test caps at the time of writing, and at just 28 could also be in the window for the job post-2027 as well.\u00a0He does potentially lack a little bit of outright captaincy experience, though, but this could be a good time to test him out.<\/p>\n

Curry is in a similar boat to Earl, really. He has been a key member of the England squad for years and sits on 62 Test caps at the time of writing. but he could also be set for a summer away from the Test picture. The Sale Sharks man has struggled with injuries over the past few years, and while he does always seem to peak at the right time for England, this feels like the right time to give him a break and look towards the 2027 World Cup rather than risking any more long-term issues.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ranking England\u2019s centre options following Benhard Janse van Rensburg selection as \u2018famously problematic position\u2019 remains a \u2018headache\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England head coach Steve Borthwick could be set to rest a number of players this summer for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[309,242,348,3482,50,5903,101,5831,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-594438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-steve-borthwick","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}