When England stormed through their autumn Test series with four wins out of four, a highlight was changing the close-run defeats of the year before into solid victories.
Their version of world champions South Africa’s famous “bomb squad” tactic, packing the subs’ bench with six forwards to close a match out in the final stages, was partly responsible.
Head coach Steve Borthwick was such a believer that he picked three high-profile British & Irish Lions front-rowers in Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Will Stuart on a stellar bench against New Zealand and Australia.
Then against Argentina, Genge and Cowan-Dickie started, knowing they could rely on loosehead prop Fin Baxter alongside Stuart on the bench. The emerging tighthead Asher Opoku-Fordjour earned valuable autumn minutes, too.
What’s changed for the Six Nations?
Stuart of Bath and Opoku-Fordjour of Sale Sharks are injured and could miss the entire tournament, while Baxter of Harlequins is also sidelined to start with.
England still have hookers Cowan-Dickie and Jamie George in place but it has forced a major rethink of the props, with Borthwick calling in uncapped pair Billy Sela and Manny Iyogun, together with 33-year-old Trevor Davison, who has 50 minutes of Test rugby in his three caps.
England’s Six Nations fixtures
England vs Wales, 7 February, 4.40pm Scotland vs England, 14 February, 4.40pm England vs Ireland, 21 February, 2.10pm Italy vs England, 7 March, 4.40pm France vs England, 14 March, 8.10pmIt’s left Joe Heyes of Leicester Tigers as the senior tighthead prop, on just 17 caps. So if England wanted Heyes and Genge to be on a bomb-squad-style bench, they would have to start with Bevan Rodd (10 caps) or Iyogun in the No 1 jersey, and Davison or the 20-year-old Sela at No 3.
Borthwick spoke glowingly of England’s depth chart at Friday’s Six Nations squad announcement and he was only half-joking when he said scrum coach Tom Harrison knew the profile of every prop in England down “to level seven”.
But the boss admits he faces a decision as to whether the “experienced front-row forwards” start or come off the bench, now.
How will the new faces cope?
As Borthwick met the media in the Twickenham changing rooms, a video silently running in the background showed Dan Cole, the now retired veteran of 118 England caps, toasting a win. “It’s only just over a year since Dan was in the team,” said Borthwick, acknowledging how change can happen.
He described Davison as a “tough, tough prop”. He added that Davison “has been around the Premiership a long time” by contrast with the “just emerging” Sela, although the latter has been on Borthwick’s radar since he took the England job in 2022.
Billy Sela could make his debut after a first call-up to the senior side (Photo: Getty)The i Paper sought the views of Cole, who helped bring through Heyes at their club Leicester, on the prop dilemma.
“Props get more exposure at a young age now,” he says.
“They have to do that live in the Prem, on TV, because clubs’ squad depth isn’t what it used to be. But there is no substitute for experience. Joe Heyes has got better by sheer playing, and he’s an international quality tighthead.
“With Davison and Sela coming in, there’ll be some adjustment period. They’re being exposed now to training with the other guys, building those experiences in training, and then if they have to play, they’ve got that in the bank.
“It won’t be a case of Tom Harrison begging for time from Steve, because Steve will know.”
What are the other challenges to the newcomers?
Cole says: “The tighthead is the cornerstone of the pack, and with Steve and Tom, the England tighthead has to be able to scrum. Then if you [as a newcomer] just go in there and say ‘this is what I do’, you won’t get very far.
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“You have to give a little bit of yourself to make sure everyone around you is ready to go.
“England have quite a dynamic pack, not the biggest pack in the world, but they are athletic guys; they’re strong and they’re powerful.
“So England scrummage to their strengths, to be athletic with the engagement whereas, say, the French, who can be a lot bigger, might not engage as hard, or they might take an engagement and then come back strong at you.
“It’s about getting quality reps into guys, not just flashes of brilliance, but being consistently good, tested and exposed.
“I remember when I first played senior rugby at Bedford. The first thing is to get in the team and just don’t be crap, don’t let anyone down. Then it’s to get in and start, then it’s ‘how can I actually help the team win?’”
Borthwick has to decide which man from his much-altered prop corps is best able to do that.
England’s Six Nations training squad in full
Forwards
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers, 30 caps) Arthur Clark (Gloucester Rugby, 1 cap) Alex Coles (Northampton Saints, 14 caps) Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks, 53 caps) Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins, 20 caps) Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 65 caps) Theo Dan (Saracens, 20 caps) Trevor Davison (Northampton Saints, 3 caps) Ben Earl (Saracens, 46 caps) Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs, uncapped) Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 75 caps) Jamie George (Saracens, 105 caps) Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers, 17 caps) Maro Itoje (Saracens, 97 caps) – captain Emmanuel Iyogun (Northampton Saints, uncapped) Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby, 7 caps) Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints, 5 caps) Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks, 10 caps) Billy Sela (Bath Rugby, uncapped) Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 45 caps)Backs
Henry Arundell (Bath Rugby, 11 caps) Seb Atkinson (Gloucester Rugby, 2 caps) Elliot Daly (Saracens, 74 caps) Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints, 7 caps) Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs, 13 caps) George Ford (Sale Sharks, 105 caps) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 22 caps) George Furbank (Northampton Saints, 14 caps) Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints, 27 caps) Cadan Murley (Harlequins, 4 caps) Max Ojomoh (Bath Rugby, 2 caps) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 74 caps) Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 46 caps) Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby, 14 caps) Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 41 caps) Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 21 caps)Fin Baxter, Ben Curry, Ollie Lawrence, Tom Roebuck and Fin Smith will also travel to the training camp in Girona for rehabilitation from injury
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