Category: England Rugby

• Squad are due to arrive in Johannesburg on Thursday

• Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus praises Henry Pollock

Marcus Smith says England are flying south determined to make a fast and furious start to the new Nations Championship at South Africa’s expense next week. A 36-man squad will touch down in Johannesburg on Thursday and Smith says there is a shared desire to rise to the high-altitude challenge of upsetting the world champions in their backyard.

England have been training in oxygen masks in Bagshot to prepare themselves for the Highveld and, with games against Fiji and Argentina to follow, are conscious of the need to make an early impression against the Springboks. “It’s one shot,” said Smith, who has now played 50 Tests for his country. “We’ve spoken about leaving it all out there. It’s a hell of an opportunity. I don’t think England have been there since 2018 so we could create history, going down there to deliver a result.

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• Caluori, Fisilau, Janse van Rensburg, Sela, Kloska selected

• Fin Smith says he had to ‘fake’ confidence after Lions tour

At some stage there will be better times ahead for English rugby. They have an encouraging amount of young talent, a decent age profile and another 15 months to develop prior to the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Get it right – and they have a more than promising draw – and the sunlit uplands could yet be glimpsed in Australia next year.

That, at least, is the cosy scenario. First, though, there is the equivalent of a precarious-looking rope bridge to be crossed by those named in Steve Borthwick’s squad for this summer’s inaugural leg of the new Nations Championship. Three Tests in three different continents in successive weeks with a squad lacking its regular captain and on a four-match losing streak is not the idyllic travel brochure it might have been.

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Attention switches to England’s tour squad announcement as the Northampton and Exeter players patch up and press on

Of all the celebratory snapshots of Northampton’s Prem final triumph, perhaps the best was the morning-after picture of Henry Pollock and Fin Smith in bed with the trophy accompanied by backing vocals from Frank Sinatra. “That’s life, that’s what all the people say. You’re riding high in April, shot down in May. But I know I’m going to change that tune, when I’m back on top, back on top in June …”

Talk about suitably perfect lyrics. Saints may have finished top of the regular-season table but when they were being smashed 41-17 at Leicester on 9 May they looked far from dead certs to collect a second title in three years. To have claimed it on the occasion of their captain, George Furbank, making his final Saints appearance made it all the sweeter for Pollock, Smith and all his other close compadres.

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• France XV 35-19 England XV

• South Africa-born back came on in 52nd minute

Benhard Janse van Rensburg’s hopes of a try-scoring England debut were dashed by fumbling hands as France emerged conclusive 35-19 winners in their non-cap international in Vannes.

South Africa-born Janse van Rensburg was brought on in the 52nd minute and shortly after he was presented with a routine run-in, only for the ball to slip from his hands. The opportunity was England’s last chance to start reeling in a 28-12 deficit and otherwise the Bristol centre’s involvement was limited.

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Northampton scrum-half reflects on his lifelong international ambitions, playing with freedom and his club’s Prem semi-final against Leicester

Plenty of aspiring young players will relate to how Archie McParland once felt. Northampton’s fast-emerging scrum-half, on the verge of a full England debut this summer, possessed the requisite talent but not always the freedom of expression to maximise it. Perfectionists can often be like that, so averse to making the slightest mistake they end up holding themselves back.

Eventually there was a choice to be made: abandon all inner doubt and trust in his ability or stay frustratingly trapped in never never land. The turning point for McParland arrived just after Christmas in Bath when he starred for Saints in a pivotal league fixture at the Recreation Ground having been specifically encouraged by his coaches to follow his gut instinct. “That was the moment,” he says now. “I’d been training well but struggling to put it on to the pitch. In that game we felt quite free to play our game and it all worked out. Since then I’ve been able to show my game more and more.”

In what has been an eye-catching personal season for the 21-year-old there was another prime example at Bath in the sixth minute of the Champions Cup quarter-final in April. Clean off-the-top ball, a deft lob by Rory Hutchinson, a glorious one-handed flick on by McParland to Fin Smith and great support from Tommy Freeman and Fraser Dingwall made for the slickest of first-phase strike plays. Saints lost a thrilling contest 43-41 but for a while their attacking game was untouchable.

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• Captain to miss Nations Championship barring injuries

• Feyi-Waboso could recover in time for tour after surgery

The chances of Maro Itoje touring with England this summer continue to diminish after the national captain was left out of Steve Borthwick’s latest June training squad. It is understood England would ideally like to give Itoje a rest barring a sudden rush of injuries which affects the number of other second row candidates available to Borthwick.

Despite his club Saracens having failed to make the Prem play-offs, Itoje is not among the 26 players gathered in Bagshot to prepare for a fixture between an England XV and a France XV in Vannes on Friday week. Other senior players including Jamie George, Ben Earl and Tom Curry are involved, however, alongside uncapped hopefuls such as Gloucester’s Afolabi Fasogbon and Ben Redshaw and the Bristol centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg.

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• ‘I’ll make decisions when time comes,’ says head coach

• Chessum expected to lead side in at least one July Test

England’s head coach, Steve Borthwick, has confirmed he may rest some senior players including his captain, Maro Itoje, for all or part of his squad’s summer Nations Championship games. A final decision will not be taken until next month but, barring an injury crisis, it seems probable England will be under fresh leadership on the field for at least one of their July Tests.

Rather than a traditional tour to a single country, the new tournament will require Borthwick and his squad to play internationals on three different continents on successive weekends, starting against South Africa in Johannesburg on 4 July and finishing in Santiago del Estero in Argentina on 18 July.

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• Benhard Janse van Rensburg in 42-man training squad

• England consider resting Itoje and other senior players

England have called up the former South African U20 centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg to train with the national squad ahead of this summer’s inaugural Nations Championship. The Bristol Bears midfielder has been picked ahead of the omitted Bath pair Ollie Lawrence and Max Ojomoh despite not being officially available for England until 8 July.

Janse van Rensburg will become eligible on residency grounds on the grounds he has been in the UK for five years since joining his former club London Irish. This means he will not be available for England’s Test against the Springboks on 4 July but could potentially make a full debut against Fiji at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium the following weekend.

The 29-year-old, may also feature in a non-cap game against a France XV in Vannes on 19 June, assuming he makes a good impression in training. He did not have the best of nights in Northampton last Friday when Bristol suffered a record 94-33 defeat and were repeatedly cut apart by a rampant Saints backline.

The Rugby Football Union had to make a special appeal to World Rugby for dispensation to consider Janse van Rensburg, who played 21 minutes as a late replacement for South Africa’s U20 side back in 2016. This made him technically ineligible to qualify for England on residency grounds, until the RFU successfully argued that it was unfair for that brief appearance to bind him to South Africa in perpetuity.

Borthwick is clearly seeking fresh ways to inject momentum into his squad following the team’s fifth-placed finish in the Six Nations which saw England lose four of their five games. There are also call-ups for the impressive young Northampton scrum-half Archie McParland and Saracens’ fast-rising No9 Charlie Bracken, along with a recall for the rapid Leicester wing Adam Radwan.

Radwan has nipped in ahead of the unfortunate Arundell with Saracens’ Noah Caluori also included in a 42-man squad. Up front there are call-ups for the uncapped Bath front-row duo of Vilikesa Sela and Kepu Tuipulotu, prominent members of England’s U20 side who are now pushing for senior recognition. There may well be opportunities this summer with Borthwick understood to be considering resting some of his senior pros including the captain Maro Itoje for some or all of England’s July games.

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Quins’ resident New Zealander has some fascinating and forthright views, not least regarding England’s World Cup prospects

After 18 years it is almost time to say farewell to Harlequins’ resident Kiwi. Not every overseas recruit becomes part of the fabric of a team thousands of miles from home but that has long been the case with Nick Evans, a Prem winner with Quins as a player and a coach in 2012 and 2021 respectively. As the former All Blacks fly-half conceded this week: “It’s going to be really hard to let go of this club.”

And vice versa. During his playing days the skilful, popular Evans personified everything good about the way Quins approached the game. As a coach, he has been similarly positive, endlessly seeking fresh ways to crack opposition defences. Quins may have endured a disappointing season, but that should not tarnish the sizeable contribution that Evans, now 45, has made during his residency at the Stoop.

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England moved one step closer to another grand slam with victory over a spirited Italy

6 mins. The home side decide to ram a stick in their own spokes by booting the restart out on the full. England will have a scrum on the centre spot.

4 mins. A return to the 22 pulls the Italy defence in narrow and that is all the opportunity Harrison needs to find space on the right with a cross kick that Packer dives on to score.

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If supporters want transparency, they won’t find it in the rubber-stamping of Steve Borthwick’s coaching team

There has been a lot of fuss in recent days about French TV directors not giving rugby fans the full picture. In that particular department, sadly, there remains a runaway market leader. To say the Rugby Football Union’s public response to England’s disappointing Six Nations campaign has failed to supply all the relevant angles is an understatement.

In an ideal world, there would have been a media conference with Bill Sweeney, the RFU’s chief executive, alongside Steve Borthwick, his head coach, presenting a united, purposeful front and outlining precisely why the status quo needs preserving despite England having racked up four championship defeats for the first time since 1976. Instead, there was only a “Don’t tell ‘em, Pike” statement on email best summarised in four words: “Nothing to see here.”

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• England suffered four defeats in dismal Six Nations

• Bill Sweeney says improvement not ‘one simple answer’

Steve Borthwick and his coaching staff are to remain in charge of England’s men’s team despite the squad’s worst Five or Six Nations for 50 years. The Rugby Football Union has opted to back Borthwick and his lieutenants through to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia having completed what it described as “a detailed and robust review” of England’s latest campaign.

Despite having lost four championship games in the same season for the first time since 1976, the RFU has chosen to keep faith with the Borthwick regime in the belief that things can only get better. The union has decided that sacking the head coach is not the optimal solution, having previously dispensed with Eddie Jones’s services nine months prior to the 2023 World Cup.

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Longsuffering hooker, who warmed bench for 21 Tests and lost part of a thumb, is getting RFU recognition at last

Initially, Andy Simpson thought it was a Saturday morning wind-up. Someone from the Rugby Football Union museum was phoning to tell him that, at the age of 71, he was finally a capped England player. Given he had retired without featuring in an officially recognised Test – “the first thing you think is: ‘Who’s taking the mickey here?’” – his scepticism was understandable.

But no, it was totally legit. Simpson is among 47 former players now basking in a warm, rosy glow that had previously eluded them. Having trawled through its archives, the RFU has deemed that several fixtures against full-strength national teams – including a 1986 contest between Italy and an England B side containing Simpson – were effectively Test matches. The long wait is over and the golden oldie debutants have been invited to attend a special, if belated, capping ceremony on 8 June.

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• Former captain spent past two seasons at Brive

• Alex Sanderson: ‘He’s still got the ability’

Courtney Lawes has been backed to regain his England place following confirmation he will be joining Sale Sharks this summer on a one-year deal. The former national captain has spent the last two seasons with Brive in France’s ProD2 but has indicated he would love to play international rugby again should the chance arise.

While Lawes will be 38 next February and retired from the Test arena after the 2023 World Cup in France, he still feels he can make an impact at the top level of the game. That view is shared by Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, who is much looking forward to welcoming the former Northampton stalwart to Manchester.

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