England Squeezes Championship Title with Ingenious Strategies!

It might well have been the most difficult selection of Steve Borthwick ’s tenure as England head coach. Having tried first sticking and then twisting to compel the reaction he desired from his squad after defeats, a historic Six Nations loss in Italy seemed to leave Borthwick with nowhere to turn as he seeks to address a three-game run that has left his job under severe scrutiny. In that context, it may feel like making minimal changes is a risky approach.

There was little that could have been done, though, to dramatically address a slump that seemed as much mental as to do with selection, and Borthwick was somewhat limited by a paucity of options on England’s European tour, which has seen them set up base in Verona between games in Rome and Paris. With Ollie Lawrence not fit, Henry Slade not having travelled, and George Furbank seemingly not trusted to be at Test sharpness after 15 months of injury woe, a backline that struggled to take its chances goes again with a need to build cohesion, confidence and connection – three qualities lacking at the Stadio Olimpico. This might have been the toughest selection of Steve Borthwick’s tenure (Getty) There is, though, a subtle shift that could represent a more significant change in English strategy.

The installation of Ollie Chessum on the blindside flank comes after more than a year of Borthwick almost totally eschewing a “big six”, opting instead for a more mobile back row comprised of traditional opensides. Back row positioning is often more interchangeable than is made out – France, for example, use a left and right approach rather than blind and open – but one can split England’s time under Borthwick since the 2023 World Cup, and the retirement of Courtney Lawes, almost exactly in half, as they tried to replace the blindside. Lawes was a unicorn – a converted lock who developed into a rounded forward of exceptional ability.

To initially try and compensate for his absence, Borthwick preferred a lineout jumper or grafter in the No 6 shirt. Across 12 games in 2024, England’s starting blindside flanker was one of Chandler Cunningham-South (six times), Ethan Roots (three times) or Chessum (twice) on 11 occasions, before Tom Curry began against Japan at the end of the autumn. Ollie Chessum adds lineout nous to England’s back row (Getty) 2025, though, saw one of Curry, his twin brother Ben and Guy Pepper deployed there all but once – Cunningham-South against the USA last July – and that trend continued into this Six Nations.