England have the squad to win the Six Nations title this year but Ben Spencer’s absence is mystifying.
Of course, there is more competition at scrum half nowadays after Danny Care and Ben Youngs dominated the position for so long but how Spencer can go from being the best number nine in the Premiership for a few years and starting the first two Tests of the Autumn Nations Series a couple of months ago to not making the squad is beyond me.
He didn’t do much wrong against New Zealand and Australia in November, and the game was lost on both occasions in the final 20 minutes after he had been taken off, so he felt like a bit of a scapegoat when he was dropped out of the match day 23 completely for the South Africa and Japan games and I don’t know if there’s more to it than just rugby reasons.
Steve Borthwick seems to like Harry Randall’s impact off the bench and Jack van Poortvliet is a player he knows very well so maybe he just doesn’t see him as a good option among the replacements, with Alex Mitchell surely nailed on to start, but Spencer’s omission is baffling to me.
On a more positive note, two players who have been absolutely banging the door down for a year or so but didn’t play for England in the autumn have been included in the squad and one of Ted Hill or Tom Willis has to start in the back row.
I understand why you wouldn’t throw them both in, especially with Ireland away first up, but they’ve been tearing up trees in the Premiership and both are suited to the way England should be playing in different ways.
Willis has the most carries, post contact metres and defenders beaten in the English top flight this season, as well as being among the top tacklers as well, but it’s actually Hill who I’d be giving a starting berth to in Dublin.
The Bath man can do it all, carrying, tackling, lineout work on his own and opposition ball, being a menace at the breakdown, and he looks like a very Borthwick type player on the face of it so the surprise is that he hasn’t been picked by him before now.
He’s 6ft 5in tall and has even started for Bath in the second row this season, and we know how much Borthwick likes a hybrid lock/flanker option, so I think he’s the perfect fit to start at blindside.
The England head coach is more than likely to start Ollie Chessum there with George Martin in the second row but both of them have been out injured recently so I’d be tempted to give Hill a chance and have one of the Leicester men on the bench.
Maro Itoje is guaranteed to be the other starting lock after he was named the new England captain and I think the fact he almost always plays the full 80 minutes is the main reason behind the decision to go for him ahead of Jamie George.
I still think George is the man to start at hooker but England have been losing games in the final quarter after he’s exited stage left and that consistency in leadership throughout the game is a major factor.
I don’t think Itoje is a leader who will be massively vocal and inspire particularly with rousing speeches in the style of a Lawrence Dallaglio but he’s been leading by example for Saracens this season and is one of the few candidates guaranteed to start and stay on throughout.
With injuries to the likes of George Furbank, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Gabriel Ibitoye and Sam Underhill, to name a few, much of the squad and indeed starting XV does pick itself and there are a lot fewer close selection calls in a 36-man group than there would have been.
I know it’s being talked about but there’s no way I’d be moving Marcus Smith to full back, especially because Freddie Steward is in great form and his super strength has become even more of an asset with the new laws around escorting and will be invaluable in Dublin.
I’m really pleased Cadan Murley’s been included and I’d be tempted to start him on the wing with Tommy Freeman at centre but I think Henry Slade will get the nod because of his experience and ball-playing ability, particularly in Furbank’s absence.
Freeman has only started at outside centre once for Saints this season, whereas he spent quite a bit of the last campaign there, so it’d be a bold call to do it alongside two rookie wingers at international wingers away to the holders and joint favourites again.
There’d have been more chance of it happening if England had a different schedule but they face their opponents in descending order of difficulty really and that could be a blessing or a curse.
I don’t think anyone will win the Grand Slam this year, with the Irish having three away fixtures and the French having to travel to Dublin, so there’s no reason they can’t win in Ireland but a defeat in the opening round would be far from disastrous for England.
Unusually, they have three consecutive home games after that and Allianz Stadium may not have been a fortress of late but that should still give them a great chance of being at least in title contention going into the final weekend.
And, if nobody does win a Grand Slam, then bonus points will obviously play a big role in deciding the outcome of the tournament so hopefully we can continue to see more from England in attack, as much as the defence was the main talking point after the autumn.
It’s fair to describe England as dark horses for this year’s Six Nations, given they’ve finished no higher than third since winning it in 2020, but this is squad more than capable of lifting the trophy. As ever, the players just need to be given the blueprint and empowered to perform like they do for their clubs.
My England starting XV to face Ireland
15 Freddie Steward
14 Tommy Freeman
13 Ollie Lawrence
12 Henry Slade
11 Ollie Sleightholme
10 Marcus Smith
9 Alex Mitchell
1 Ellis Genge
2 Jamie George
3 Will Stuart
4 Maro Itoje
5 Ollie Chessum
6 Ted Hill
7 Tom Curry
8 Ben Earl
