Matt Dawson column: ‘Steve Borthwick played a blinder with bench selection’
Steve Borthwick or his players never talk about it, but we’re now two years away from the Rugby World Cup in Australia.
There will be a handful of players who have played a lot of rugby over the next two years and still haven’t been selected; Such is England’s impressive strength and depth.
The starting selection for Saturday’s 25-7 win over Australia was Borthwick’s nod to the stars of the successful summer tour to Argentina.
When you have benches like England’s, with six British and Irish Lions tourists, you’re talking about the top echelons of international team sport.
There hasn’t been a bench like this in England for a long time.
I don’t think Borthwick will consistently be this strong off the bench because when you play against better teams you need that experience, strength, skill and finesse from the start of the game.
After all that graft in the first 60 minutes, if you’re Australian and you see the Lions front row of Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Will Stuart, you’re thinking “oh my god”.
You also have the individual genius and talent of Henry Pollock; You can catch the ball with one hand and be in the right place at the right time to score a vital try.
It’s a great weapon to have and is currently being used very strategically and successfully.
When we look at this England squad – we’ve been saying this for a while – there’s something a bit different about the squad, the talent, the desire to be part of the extended squad and the culture within it.
Everyone has invested and everyone can see and enjoy the success England is now having.
Hooker, number eight, fly-half, inside centre-half and full-back are generally really fundamental positions to be very successful in World Cups.
Consistency in these positions shows that they are ready to qualify for the World Cup; It will be interesting to see how Borthwick plays this fall.
I think the full-back and scrum-half positions are still pretty much up for grabs, and with a bit of a bit in midfield, Tommy Freeman has had a really good start to his Test career as a 13-year-old.
Maybe having two or three halves for different styles and different contrasts is the way forward. We can say the same for the back row.
Borthwick played blind with his selection against the Wallabies, who had a poor performance from what I’ve seen from them.
