England Rugby News
Head coach may also consider playing Ben Earl at centre
Marcus Smith left out of matchday 23 to face Australia
Steve Borthwick is considering playing his fast-rising back-row Henry Pollock on the wing at some stage this autumn as he seeks fresh impetus in all areas before the looming November Tests.
The England head coach says he wants his side to hit the ground running against Australia on Saturday and may also start Ben Earl at centre this season.
Continue reading...Sale No 10’s tactical nous may earn him start on Saturday
Tommy Freeman in contention for outside-centre spot
George Ford is likely to start at fly-half when England begin their autumn internationals campaign against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.
The Sale Sharks No 10 enjoyed an outstanding summer tour with Steve Borthwick’s side, helping to orchestrate two victories against Argentina and one against the USA, and appears to have stated a strong case for selection.
Continue reading...19-year-old wing scored five tries on first Prem start
Borthwick has picked 36-player squad for four matches
Noah Caluori, the 19-year-old Saracens wing, has been named in England’s autumn internationals squad by Steve Borthwick.
Caluori burst on to the Prem scene by scoring five tries against Sale on 18 October and, as England gear up for a busy November featuring four Tests, Borthwick has called up the uncapped youngster after initially inviting him to a training camp last week. The 36-player squad, including 19 forwards and 17 backs, gathered at Pennyhill Park in Surrey on Sunday night.
Continue reading...Head coach faces delicate balancing act before opening November Test as Saracens’s new whiz-kid enters mix
The lobby of the Pennyhill Park hotel on a Monday evening provides a neat snapshot of English rugby’s fast-changing world. First to amble into view is Noah Caluori, Saracens’s new whiz-kid who has just announced himself with five tries on his first Prem start. He nods a polite greeting and looks every inch a sporting thoroughbred that any national coach would covet.
A couple of minutes later a more familiar face appears. It feels faintly bizarre to be bumping into Joe Marler when, on your television, he is sitting in a Scottish castle with Claudia Winkleman but, hey presto, that’s the magic of showbiz right there. One minute you’re propping for England, the next you’re attempting to out-think Stephen Fry.
Continue reading...England coach talks up 6ft 5in wing’s humility and desire
Door closed on Tom Willis but left ajar for Owen Farrell
England could fast-track the Saracens teenager Noah Caluori into the Test spotlight as soon as next month following the wing’s dramatic start to his top-level club career. The 19-year-old celebrated his first Prem start with five tries against Sale Sharks on Saturday and the national head coach, Steve Borthwick, says he is already in contention for a senior England debut.
It was impossible to miss Caluori’s aerial ability and eye for the try line at the weekend with the former Lions captain Sam Warburton describing the 6ft 5in player as “almost undefendable” and “an absolute diamond”. England have been aware of his potential for a while and it seems that some game time against Fiji a fortnight on Saturday is not impossible.
Continue reading...Saracens’ 19-year-old wing impressed in win over Sale
Jack Willis omitted from autumn internationals lineup
Noah Caluori, the 19-year-old Saracens wing, has been invited to train with England by the head coach, Steve Borthwick, after an incredible five-try barrage against Sale in his first start in the Prem on Saturday.
A 36-man training squad has been named to prepare for the upcoming autumn internationals, with Jack Willis the most notable omission by Borthwick after the No 8’s decision to return to play in France.
Continue reading...No 8 to leave Saracens at end of the season
Only Gallagher Prem players eligible for England
Tom Willis will leave Saracens at the end of the season after signing a contract with Bordeaux that will make him ineligible for Steve Borthwick’s England squad. In a major blow to the head coach, Willis has rejected a new deal from Saracens in order to return to the club where he spent a chunk of the 2022-23 campaign once Wasps had entered administration.
Since heading to north London in 2023, he has established himself as England’s first-choice No 8 and was awarded an enhanced contract by the Rugby Football Union in recognition of the impact he has made.
Continue reading...Former captain will not be in training squad next week
Farrell has not played for England since 2023 World Cup
Owen Farrell is expected to be overlooked by Steve Borthwick for England’s autumn internationals campaign despite injury headaches at inside-centre. It is understood that Farrell will not be named in a training squad on Sunday for next week’s mini camp and as a result Borthwick is expected to omit the 34-year-old former captain when he finalises his squad on 26 October.
The Gloucester centre Seb Atkinson, who started England’s two summer victories over Argentina, is sidelined through injury and likely to miss all four autumn Tests, against Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina, but as things stand that is not going to prompt Borthwick to turn to Farrell, who has not appeared for his country since the 2023 World Cup.
Continue reading...Players who sign up would be ineligible for national sides
Proposed event yet to be sanctioned by World Rugby
Senior global rugby figures believe the rebel R360 venture is all but dead unless it can find a way to appease the world’s top nations. In a dramatic move the leading unions collectively made clear this week that players involved in the R360 competition would be ineligible for their national sides and have warned them to treat offers with “extreme caution”.
Privately there is a widespread view that those pushing the R360 concept, fronted by the England World Cup winner Mike Tindall, now face a struggle to get the project off the ground if the world’s top male and female players are required to forfeit their international futures to join the rebel league.
Continue reading...Moody’s diagnosis with motor neurone disease at the age of 47 is desperate news for all those who know and love him
Back when he was captaining England at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Lewis Moody went canyon swinging near Queenstown in New Zealand. Despite being utterly fearless on the pitch he was not brilliant with heights. That day, he wrote in his autobiography, was “the most terrifying experience of my life”. Or at least it was. A fortnight ago, he and his family were plunged into something infinitely scarier.
Moody’s diagnosis with the incurable motor neurone disease at the age of 47 is, first and foremost, desperate news for all those who know and love him. There are good guys and then there is “Moodos”, about whom nobody in rugby has a bad word. Cruel doesn’t come close to describing it.
Continue reading...Fresh from a chat with the Ryder Cup captain, the Saracens stalwart is back at his old club with half an eye on an England return too
By his own admission, Owen Farrell was exhausted after the first weekend of the season. A stray boot to the face inside 10 minutes made for a bloody nose and a rude awakening on his second Saracens debut against Newcastle, 17 years after his first. Farrell soldiered on to the hour mark, helping Saracens to a bonus-point victory before an early train home on Saturday morning. It was Sunday that left him “emotionally drained”, however.
Farrell was glued to Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph, watching Luke Donald’s side so nearly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The 34-year-old is a keen golfer – he took the phone call from his father, Andy, to join the British & Irish Lions tour in July in a clubhouse – and played alongside Donald at last month’s PGA Championship Pro-Am at Wentworth.
Continue reading...Former scrum-half admits family illnesses made it difficult for him to embrace his achievement of being England’s most-capped player
“I found it hard, I really did,” Ben Youngs says as he explains why it was once so difficult to embrace his achievement of playing more times for England than any other men’s rugby player. Youngs won 127 caps and featured in four World Cups, but he used to look down at the ground whenever his longevity was mentioned.
Youngs retired from international rugby at the end of 2023, and played his last game for Leicester in the Premiership final in June, and so he can now give public voice to the trauma he carried for so long. While his sister-in-law Tiffany suffered for years with blood cancer, and his brother-in-law Jake endured motor neurone disease, Youngs played for England. He often felt as if he was putting himself ahead of everyone else while his brother and sister lost their partners to terminal illness.
Continue reading...‘If I can be trusted in the midfield then I’ll go for it’
Freeman enjoyed a stunning 2024-25 campaign
England’s reigning player of the year, Tommy Freeman, has revealed he sees his future at outside-centre and intends to continue his transformation into midfield in the coming season.
A winger by trade, Freeman enjoyed a stunning 2024-25 campaign, racking up 23 tries for Northampton, England and the British & Irish Lions. Freeman scored a memorable hat-trick in the Champions Cup semi-final win over Leinster, having become the first England men’s player to score in every round of the Six Nations.
Continue reading...Steve Borthwick’s new attack coach believes he has time to create a winning culture before the World Cup in 2027
To say England have been through a few attack coaches in recent times is an understatement. The latest cab off the rank, Lee Blackett, is the 11th individual to take on the role in nine years but it may just be that the national team have found the ideal catalyst to enhance their chances at the next Men’s Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027.
Blackett, 42, auditioned successfully for the job in the summer tour of Argentina and the US, where England scored 13 tries in three Tests, and he has emerged as the big winner in Steve Borthwick’s latest cabinet reshuffle with Richard Wigglesworth switching to defence and Joe El-Abd helping out with the forwards.
Continue reading...The Brisbane Broncos assistant coach on the Lions, union’s struggle in Australia and that World Cup fight
Ben Te’o emerges from Brisbane Broncos’ headquarters, umbrella in one hand and walking a little gingerly. As we head for the cafe at the Broncos’ lavish training base, where Te’o is now an assistant coach, he explains he has just spent two nights in hospital due to a burst appendix. To his great credit, he still felt obliged to meet, and he is good company. It is entirely complimentary to remark that Te’o has never struck as an overly complicated person. He says it how he sees it. And there is plenty to say.
It is 8am, the day before the first British & Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Te’o has been in demand of late, for the local press wants to know how the Lions measures up against NRL’s State of Origin and the former England centre is the only man to both represent the former and play in the latter.
Continue reading...