ENGLAND BOSS STEVE Borthwick has sprung a surprise in selection by dropping Marcus Smith to accommodate the likely return of George Ford against France.
Smith has been left out of a 26-man training squad for this week’s camp in Brighton having begun the Guinness Six Nations as starting out-half before spending rounds two and three on the bench.
It is possible that the 24-year-old will miss out on facing France on Saturday week and Ireland on 18 March altogether with Borthwick now having the option of revisiting the Ford-Owen Farrell creative axis that has worked for England in the past.
Ford won the last of his 81 caps against France in last year’s Six Nations but his most recent start was in the same tournament a year earlier.
The 29-year-old had fallen out of favour under Eddie Jones and then injured his Achilles the 2022 Gallagher Premiership final, after which he left Leicester for Sale and has only made his comeback with 151 minutes across three appearances.
Ford enjoyed one of his most successful seasons working under Borthwick before England’s new head coach left his post as Tigers boss for Twickenham in December.
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thank god for that
Estonia please, i wouldnt fancy getting the others
Does this mean that UEFA count us as ‘heavy hitters’? ;) Seriously though, this is great news, I wouldn’t fancy having to play any of those teams with they way we’re playing at the moment.
Wouldn’t write out Estonia though William. They beat N. Ireland 4-1 a few weeks ago. They’d only love to do the same to the South, I’m sure!
Ah yes, the formidable Northern Ireland. One of the top teams in Europe to be sure! ;)
Fingers crossed we can dodge Turkey. We should be able to handle the rest.
Though, we should also be able to put more than 2 past Andorra and not rely on the referee to beat Armenia…
That was the jammyiest game we ever won!