Mitchell return instrumental to England’s Six Nations revival

Scrum-half’s contribution during the end of France win justified faith in giving Northampton man full 80 minutes

It wasn’t just the way Steve Borthwick used his bench that shaped England’s victory over France, it was the way he didn’t use it, too. Instead of bringing on Harry Randall, Borthwick backed Alex Mitchell to play a full 80 minutes, something he hasn’t allowed any scrum-half to do since Mitchell last did it during England’s tour of New Zealand.

Mitchell missed most of the intervening games while he was recovering from a neck injury, including the three defeats in the autumn when Borthwick chopped and changed between Randall, Ben Spencer and Jack van Poortvliet in the interim.

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‘Rugby can be pretty complicated’: Cole and Youngs tackle plain speaking in hit podcast

As a sports journalist, I learned more about these players in a couple of episodes than years of press conferences

Things are a little different around England’s training base at Pennyhill Park this year. It’s not just that they have a new captain or a couple of uncapped players, it’s that you have to go way back to 2009 to find the last time that one, the other, or, more often than not, both of Ben Youngs and Dan Cole weren’t with the squad.

The Leicester pair have been ever-present through the best and worst of the past 15 years of English rugby, until Youngs, 35, retired from Test rugby after the last World Cup. His great mate Cole, 37, went on one more year, until the head coach, Steve Borthwick, finally decided to leave him out of the squad this spring. Cole hasn’t officially announced his own international retirement but only because, he says drily, that “it would feel like locking the stable door after the horse has already bolted”.

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Marcus Smith can become England’s pinch hitter with a licence to thrill

Fin Smith’s control at fly-half looks the better option but that need not mean the end of the Harlequin’s Test career

All too often, both in life and rugby, people prefer to stick to a certain template rather than try something different. Many, for example, still envisage the perfect No 10 to be an impish genius and, ideally, Welsh. Those who do not quite fit the mould – particularly those taking over from a recently departed legend – have to work doubly hard to shift entrenched perceptions.

Dan Biggar, Wales’s most-capped fly-half, was instructive on the subject in his thought-provoking autobiography, The Biggar Picture. “Throughout my career I’d constantly had to silence the critics. I was too slow. I stood too deep. I was petulant, aggressive and one-dimensional. I kicked too much and ran too little. I was, in short, not your typical Welsh fly-half. Where Barry John would paint you a picture, I’d draw you a diagram.”

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England win has fans dreaming again as Borthwick’s plans come together | Robert Kitson

Emotional success against France captures imagination and showcases the charm and unpredictability of the Six Nations

After it was all over on Saturday night, England’s players peeled away to seek out their loved ones in the stands. Fin Smith’s parents, Andrew and Judith, were awaiting their match-winning boy and the shared family embrace, when it came, was among the more heartwarming things you’ll see in sport all year. All those unsung hours on school and club touchlines, all those youthful ups and downs, distilled into a tight group hug of the purest emotional joy.

In a strange way it also captured the tangled charm of the Six Nations. Andrew Smith is a proud Scot who met his wife – whose father Tom represented Scotland and the British & Irish Lions – at a post-match curry night in the clubhouse at London Scottish. What a Proclaimers-style 500-mile walk it has been from there to celebrating one of England’s more stunning modern wins with their red-rose-wearing son. Heaven knows how they will feel when Scotland head south next week for a Calcutta Cup clash now laden with even more resonance.

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Furbank and Feyi-Waboso fitness boost bolsters England’s Six Nations charge

  • Both players could return for business end of tournament
  • England beat France on Saturday to get back in title hunt

England are hopeful George Furbank and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso will be back for the business end of the Six Nations campaign to bolster their title push after keeping their hopes alive with victory against France.

The Northampton full-back ­Furbank has been out of action since December with a broken arm while Feyi-Waboso is nursing a shoulder injury and both were considered in danger of missing out on the entire championship. But after the last‑gasp win on Saturday kick‑started England’s campaign Steve Borthwick revealed both ­players could yet return for his side’s run-in.

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Was England’s win a watershed moment for Borthwick or a fleeting slice of joy?

Last-gasp Six Nations victory over France could signal a new dawn but may simply be the law of averages at play

Not quite the complete works of Shakespeare, but eventually the monkeys and their typewriters were going to script a last-gasp England victory. Leaving a frazzled Twickenham on Saturday night you could not help but wonder how much significance the history books will end up affording this thrilling contest.

Has a corner been turned, has “the dam broken” as Ben Earl had promised it would, or was this, as captivating as it was, simply evidence that a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day? That while there are no certainties in professional sport, if England kept putting themselves in contention in the final throes of matches, that if they came up against a side with what at times looked like a nihilistic contempt for the try-line, eventually, after all those near misses, they would end up on the right side of the scoreboard. Is this a new dawn or simply the law of averages at play?

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When it comes to Le Crunch, England don’t seem to know what their best XV is | Ugo Monye

The world’s greatest teams know who plays when everyone is fit and horses-for-courses selection won’t help Steve Borthwick

When it comes to team selection, it’s important to remember that everything is subjective. Different coaches, five million different fans and the 80,000 people in the stadium will all have different views, different affiliations and different opinions about who should be playing for England. It plays a large part of every Test week and it’s fantastic because it creates debate, it gets people talking.

It is not specific to England either but the problem with Steve Borthwick’s recent team selections is that I just wish it felt like it was coming from a place of understanding exactly what his best team is and precisely how to deliver their best gameplan. I’m not sure we have clarity on either of those things yet and as much as I understand the notion of horses for courses, I would much prefer to have a sense that selection is first and foremost about yourselves rather than the opposition.

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‘Sorry, good game’: why English rugby attitudes still infuriate France

The one thing France fear about England isn’t their scrum, maul or back-play – it’s their attitude when they beat them

Always eager to keep its readers up to speed, the Guardian marked the inclusion of the French rugby team in the Five Nations by providing a quick glossary of pertinent terms. “Marquer” was one, “plaquer” another, “melee” a third, all familiar enough now after a hundred-and-some years of playing each other. Another essential phrase has come into the French game in that time, one borrowed from the English, who are, amusingly, almost entirely oblivious to its significance: “Sorry, good game.”

This phrase, or something like it, is what the English captain Vince Cartwright said to the French players after they went down 35-8 in the first fixture at the Parc des Princes in Paris in 1906. “Sorry, good game,” or something like it, is what Ian Preece repeated after he had kicked the winning drop goal in an 8-3 victory in 1949, when France were on a run of 43 years without winning in England. “Sorry, good game,” is, most indelibly, what the French heard, over and over again, from Will Carling, during the back half of a run of eight straight English victories that spanned 1989-1995.

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Antoine Dupont ‘surprised’ at rule that deprives England of Jack Willis

  • France-based players ineligible under RFU rules
  • Itoje reveals he rejected moves abroad to play for England

The France captain, Antoine Dupont, has revealed he is surprised by the Rugby Football Union’s policy that bans Steve Borthwick from picking players based abroad and admitted he is glad he will not lock horns with his Toulouse teammate Jack Willis on Saturday.

England host Dupont and co at Twickenham as they seek to improve a run of seven defeats in nine matches and do so without a raft of players who are based in France’s Top 14 and therefore considered unavailable.

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Stalling England seek to step on the gas with Smith shuffle against France | Robert Kitson

Be bold and back yourself will certainly be the theme of Steve Borthwick’s paddock pep talk at Twickenham

A flash red Ferrari was parked directly outside England’s team hotel shortly before Steve Borthwick unveiled his lineup to face France. It was tempting to see it as a symbol of everything the home side would love their reshuffled weekend team to be: fast, striking and a far cry from the battered Skoda they have metaphorically been driving around this season.

In tossing the playmaking keys to Northampton’s precocious Fin Smith, with Marcus Smith shunted into the role of keen-eyed back seat driver, that is essentially the ambition this week. Up the pace, keep the accelerator down for longer than they did in Dublin last Saturday and see where it takes them. Both on paper and in the car park the superficial appeal is obvious.

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Borthwick rolls dice with Marcus Smith a ‘gamechanger’ for England after switch

  • Fin Smith starts at fly-half with Marcus at full-back
  • Borthwick: ‘Marcus sees space that other players don’t’

Steve Borthwick believes Marcus Smith can be England’s “gamechanger” against France after shifting the Harlequins playmaker to full-back and handing Fin Smith a first start at fly-half for Saturday’s crunch clash.

Marcus Smith has started England’s last eight Tests at fly-half but with Borthwick keen to exploit his sparkling talents from deep and introduce a second playmaker to the side, the head coach has rolled the dice as he seeks to end his side’s miserable run of seven defeats in nine matches.

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Ntamack suspended for England clash with Jalibert likely to step up for France

  • Ntamack sent off in 43-0 defeat of Wales in Paris
  • Fly-half will be available again to face Ireland

The France fly-half Romain Ntamack has been suspended for the match against England on Saturday, forcing Les Bleus into a reshuffle, but he will be available for their fixture against Ireland later in the tournament.

Ntamack was sent off in the emphatic victory against Wales last Friday and has been handed a three-week suspension. In his absence, Bordeaux’s mercurial fly-half Matthieu Jalibert is the favourite to come into the No 10 jersey at Twickenham.

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England team’s struggles remind me of Manchester United, says Wigglesworth

  • England attack coach expects both teams to turn corner
  • ‘We’re seeing green shoots – we play fast and score tries’

Steve Borthwick’s England squad has been compared to Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United side before the massive Six Nations fixture at home against France on Saturday. Both teams have been having difficult seasons but inside the red rose camp there remains a firm belief that, given a little patience, the tide will eventually turn for them.

England’s attack coach, Richard Wigglesworth, also happens to be a United fan and sees similarities between the respective situations at Twickenham and Old Trafford. He thinks Amorim will eventually deliver success for United, now 13th in the Premier League, and is also backing England, who have won just two of their past nine Tests, to turn the corner in the not-too-distant future.

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England set to name both Smiths in starting XV for France Six Nations clash

  • Fin Smith to start at No 10 with Marcus Smith at full-back
  • ‘We’re blessed with three 10s who can play to a high level’

England are poised to select both Fin Smith and Marcus Smith in the same starting team to face France in the Six Nations this weekend.

The young Northampton fly-half is in line to make his first start in the No 10 jersey with his Harlequin namesake expected to be redeployed at full-back against France at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

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The Breakdown | England beware: rugby’s Messi is even better after Olympic sevens stint

Scrum-half Dupont took time off to snare Olympic gold which has made him even more effective around the rucks

Tickets to watch France play England this weekend are not cheap. Premium adult seats cost £199 apiece and even the most affordable ones up in the gods will set you back £89. Before you phone the Rugby Football Union to enquire if an England win is included as part of the deal, however, ask yourself how often in life you have the chance to witness pure genius.

Admittedly this can be a subjective debate. Taylor Swift fans will have a different opinion to, say, Bob Dylan disciples. However, in contemporary sport there can surely be increasingly little debate. With all due respect to the colossal talents of Novak Djokovic, Max Verstappen, Patrick Mahomes, Simone Biles and Mohamed Salah, the name Antoine Dupont must be close to the top of the list.

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