England’s Six Nations campaign resumes on Sunday against Italy on the back of successive victories over France and Scotland.
Steve Borthwick must decide to stick with his winning side or rotate his squad against the one team that has never beaten England.
Telegraph Sport’s rugby experts pick the teams they would like to see take on the Azzurri.
Give Roebuck a shot after moving Freeman
Henry Slade has made 69 appearances for England and you would struggle to describe many recent instalments as especially memorable. Nobody disputes his outstanding credentials for Exeter – he was last season’s Premiership player of the season, after all – but his role in Steve Borthwick’s system at Test level feels misconceived. Insufficiently destructive as a carrier at 13, he also fails to convince as a dual playmaker at 12, drawing boos from the Twickenham crowd for his endless recourse to the grubber kick against Scotland.
With the midfield ripe for a reshuffle, Tommy Freeman shifts to 13, with Ollie Lawrence switched back to 12. Tom Roebuck deserves the chance to showcase his electrifying attacking skill against an Italy side who shipped 73 points to France. Jack van Poortvliet is elevated to a place among the replacements on the strength of his fine display for England A last month.
George deserves to start and not for sentimental reasons
Despite boasting a 100 per cent record against them, England will not find Italy as easy work as France did in round three so I have limited myself to just a couple of changes. Tommy Freeman’s increasing involvement has coincided with Fin Smith’s elevation to fly-half and he can potentially prosper even more at outside centre.
Elliot Daly has been excellent off the bench while Tom Roebuck deserves a start on the basis of his pre-Six Nations form. Jamie George getting a start might look like a sympathy cap on his 100th appearance but there is no doubting he deserves it. Tried to go for a ‘fun’ bench: Henry Pollock and Asher Opoku-Fordjour are ready to inject some youthful enthusiasm.
Move Freeman to centre and drop Slade
Tweaks here and there, but this is all about intent. England should bid to blast Italy out of the water. I have altered the midfield, dropping Slade to the bench to unite Lawrence and Freeman. The latter pair have spent pockets of time together as a centre partnership over recent months. Roebuck gets his first gallop this Six Nations, but Fraser Dingwall is mightily unlucky.
Up front, I have rested Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tom Curry entirely. They can be fresh for what will be a tricky finish in Cardiff. Jamie George rightly marks his 100th England cap with a start and Ben Curry deserves to be back in the No 7 shirt. Ben Earl and Tom Willis are interchangeable. Theo Dan, Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Van Poortvliet are among my replacements. I was close to including Henry Pollock, too, as part of a six-two split of forwards.
Recall Van Poortvliet
An unchanged starting XV; a real luxury. The unluckiest soul to miss out is Ben Curry who played marvellously off the bench against Scotland but there is a real balance to that starting back row and, with the need to finish as well as one begins, the Sale flanker exploding off the bench with the likes of George, Elliot Daly and Ted Hill.
The only change to my selection is on the bench, where Van Poortvliet returns after his astute showing while captaining England A against their Irish counterparts. The Leicester scrum-half brings a little more control and composure when compared with the eclectic Harry Randall. Question marks remain around the English midfield but alternatives at inside centre should surely be explored after the Six Nations and not mid-championship.
Time has come to give Pollock his debut
Not very exciting, admittedly, but you almost have to give the same side another go to see if they can fix the handling errors which took the shine off the Scotland performance. England have to do more in attack and these players are too good to be bombing offloads or missing gaps. Time to prove it.
Still, I could not resist including Henry Pollock for a debut off the bench. It is going to happen sooner or later anyway. Willis, as things stand, will come through the concussion protocol and it would be nice to see him get a full 80 minutes crashing over the gain-line. Want to see more of Opoku-Fordjour, while Randall – the Bristol version – could be fun late on.
