Fin Smith is also expected to start at fly-half, despite recent concerns over his fitness.<\/p>\n
Henry Pollock looks set to begin Sunday’s Nations Championship opener at Twickenham on the bench, with uncapped Exeter Chiefs star Greg Fisilau also tipped for a place among the replacements.<\/p>\n
The latest developments could force Borthwick to make several changes to England’s previously predicted XV<\/a>.Borthwick will officially name his England team at 2pm on Friday, having already been forced to make changes to his Nations Championship squad<\/a> following Alex Mitchell’s injury.<\/p>\n Here are three major talking points from the reported team news.<\/p>\n 1. Ben Curry set to replace injured twin brother<\/p>\n Tom Curry is a major doubt after withdrawing from England training at Pennyhill Park on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The Sale Sharks flanker suffered a knock, leaving Borthwick with another selection headache ahead of the Wallabies clash.<\/p>\n England’s Marcus Smith celebrates with Ben Curry after the 2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 2 between England and France in Twickenham Stadium, London, England, Saturday, February 8, 2025 (Photo by Tom Maher \/ Inpho)<\/p>\n His twin brother Ben is now the leading contender to start at openside, ahead of Northampton youngster Henry Pollock.<\/p>\n Ben Curry has not played for England since July 2025, having undergone two hamstring operations last season.<\/p>\n He is expected to join Ollie Chessum and Ben Earl in the back row, with Pollock providing an impact option from the bench.<\/p>\n 2. Fin Smith expected to start at fly-half<\/p>\n Fin Smith is reportedly pencilled in to start against Australia despite suffering a calf injury against Leicester Tigers.<\/p>\n England’s Fin Smith during the 2025 Six Nations Championship Round 3 between England and Scotland in Allianz Twickenham Stadium, London, England, Saturday, February 22, 2025 (Photo by James Crombie \/ Inpho)<\/p>\n The Northampton playmaker trained fully on Wednesday but must come through a final fitness assessment before Borthwick confirms his team.<\/p>\n According to The Telegraph, Smith remains the preferred option at No. 10, although Marcus Smith and George Ford are alternatives.<\/p>\n Marcus Smith is currently expected to feature among the replacements, alongside scrum-half Ben Spencer.<\/p>\n 3. Henry Pollock benched as uncapped star gets his chance<\/p>\n Henry Pollock looks set to miss out on a starting place despite his growing reputation.<\/p>\n Borthwick reportedly favours Ben Curry’s experience and breakdown ability against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n Pollock could instead be joined on the bench by Exeter Chiefs number eight Greg Fisilau.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old is in line to make his England debut after narrowly missing out on a first cap during the summer.<\/p>\n England are expected to select six forwards and two backs among their replacements, with neither Joe Marchant nor Will Joseph expected to feature.<\/p>\n England predicted XV vs Australia<\/p>\n Backs<\/p>\n 15. Freddie Steward<\/p>\n 14. Tommy Freeman<\/p>\n 13. Henry Slade<\/p>\n 12. Seb Atkinson<\/p>\n 11. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso<\/p>\n 10. Fin Smith<\/p>\n 9. Jack van Poortvliet<\/p>\n Forwards<\/p>\n 1. Ellis Genge<\/p>\n 2. Jamie George<\/p>\n 3. Joe Heyes<\/p>\n 4. Maro Itoje (c)<\/p>\n 5. George Martin<\/p>\n 6. Ollie Chessum<\/p>\n 7. Ben Curry<\/p>\n 8. Ben Earl<\/p>\n Replacements<\/p>\n 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie<\/p>\n 17. Fin Baxter<\/p>\n 18. Will Stuart<\/p>\n 19. Alex Coles<\/p>\n 20. Greg Fisilau<\/p>\n 21. Henry Pollock<\/p>\n 22. Ben Spencer<\/p>\n 23. Marcus Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Details of England’s likely team to face Australia have emerged ahead of Friday’s official announcement, with Steve Borthwick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[256414,5903,118921,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-825496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england-rugby-news","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825496","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=825496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"p](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/p-00151907.jpg@webp.webp\")
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