England v Fiji: Fin Smith to start at 10 with Maro Itoje on bench

England assistant coach Kevin Sinfield admitted disappointment was inevitable among the trio.

“You don’t,” he told Rugby Union Weekly when asked how he managed to keep them all happy.

“But that’s the way it should be. At this level there’s always someone who’s a little disgruntled, maybe a little disappointed.

“They’re all impatient because they all want to play now and want the jersey now, but it’s really important for them to understand how different it is to their own club and for them to be selfless and put the team first.

“Of course it requires some management but they are all good guys and they know the value of the team, sometimes they will get bad news and they will have to deal with it like everyone else.”

“We have seen that other nations can replace their starting 10s and do it very, very well. The quality of our 10s means we can do similar.”

Fin Smith, the youngest of the three fly-half options at 23, led England to a successful finish to last year’s Six Nations after making his first Test start following the opening round defeat by Ireland.

With him ranked 10th, England won their remaining four matches to finish second in the standings, their highest finish since lifting the title in the Covid-affected 2020 tournament.

However, Smith admitted he was disappointed with his form on the subsequent Lions tour as he failed to seriously challenge Scottish Finn Russell in the Test 10.

While sales representative Asher Opoku-Fordjour was on the bench, British and Irish Lion Will Stuart was left out of the squad, Bath’s Henry Arundell, who played for England for the last time in the 2023 Rugby World Cup before moving to Racing 92, was the only name among the reserves to protect the back line.

England have won eight of their nine meetings with Fiji, most recently winning 30-24 in a tight quarter-final at France 2023.

But two months earlier Fiji had pulled off an upset 30-22 victory at Twickenham.