Marcus Smiths selection at full back tragically symbolises England erratic selection.
England are the only team in the last eight to have no idea what their best team is.
Look across to horribly strong side of the draw, and peer at Ireland, who for the umpteenth time in a row have chosen the same consistent starting XV. Same goes for France, Wales and New Zealand, though they have a few positions to tinker themselves with injures.
But with England, the selection chaos is a weekly. I along with many other England fans are truly fed up with the Ford, Farrell and Smith debate, but here we are, on the eve of a World Cup Quarter Final still debating Englands best team.
More worryingly, these conversations aren’t just happening in group chats, and Twitter feeds but actually in the England management meetings.
They have as much clue as the rest of us.
Talk of England midfield and backline balance aren’t new conversations, and to caveat my criticism of Borthwick, he has admittedly only had 10 months in the job.
One other thing to mention is how the teamsheet gets leaked every week on a Tuesday, who is the little mole in the England camp, seems to a recurring issue?
But only in August did Kevin Sinfield broach the subject of playing full back to Smith, two months later and he is set to start for the second ever time there. More boggling is that Steward is one of Englands most solid players. While Steward hasn’t reached the peaks of his debut England season in 2021/22, he is still Englands most consistent player, who is now being dropped altogether.
If you asked ten different England fans who should start on Sunday, they’d give you ten different teams.
Plainly, Borthwick has no idea what his best team is, and this Smith selection is nothing more than a gamble. It was never in the plan, and I hope he doesn’t try and persuade us that it was.
If England do somehow get through to a semi-final, I have no doubt the team will be changed again. How far do you have to go back for the last time England chose and unchanged side, 2020??
And I don’t know about you, but I’d love to stop talking about selection.
Either way, Borthwick desperately needs Farrell stand up and perform on Sunday, because if Ford comes off the bench and wins the game, we are all back to square one again.
For transparency here is my England team:
Genge
George
Cole
Itoje
Chessum
Lawes
Curry
Earl
Mitchell
Ford
Arundell
Manu
Marchant
Daly
Steward
Sinkler
Dan
Stuart
Martin
Vunipola
Care
Farrell
Lawerence
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