England lockdown options for the Rugby World Cup — take your pick

Steve Borthwick will name his 33-player squad for the Rugby World Cup on 7 August. a long list of those who have been told to stay in shape.

Until then, however, there will be various training camps — both at home and abroad — as Borthwick tries to get his team in shape for global rugby in France this autumn.

Over the next two weeks, Telegraph Sport will reveal, one block at a time, the depth that the England head coach has at his disposal in each position. Starting from the first row, look at the castles.

Castles

Olli Chessum
Maro Itoye
George Martin
David Ribbans
Joe Launchbury
Johnny Hill
Nick Ezikwe
Hugh Tizard
Dave Attwood

Following the precedent of the Eddie Jones team in 2019, Borthwick will fly to France on four flights this fall. and because of the value he places on blind jumps, a head coach will want the luxury of a pair that can play number 6. After this 2019 tournament, Courtney Lowes switched to the blind side almost permanently.

To that end, Maro Itoye is a trailblazer, and because of his late recruitment to the Six Nations and his close relationship with Borthwick, George Martin is just around the corner. Leicester lock was central to the Tigers' late attack in the playoffs and seems to have added ball-handling to their list of high-end skills. He was already the most destructive of the invaders.

Ollie Chessum was one of England's top Six Nations players until he suffered a serious ankle injury. If he recovers in time and reaches full fitness, then one would expect him to be included, but given that he missed all the skirmishes with Leicester, this is a big caveat.

There is one place left. We know that Joe Launchbury, who is currently at Toyota Verblitz following the Wasp administration, is on Borthwick's mind, but David Ribbans, who will move to Toulon this summer, should be in the driver's seat as he played a lot for England in the 2022 season. /23. season.

The Saracen duo of Nick Izikwe and Hugh Tizard, especially given the former's versatility, will fight for the spot, but Borthwick is limited by the number of players. The same can be said for Johnny Hill, a British-Irish lion who was Jones' first choice but had not yet competed under Borthwick. The trio performed admirably in the Premier League final, but none of them offered anything to make the England manager stand up and take note.

Speak your mind:< /p> Rugby castles poll

Charles Richardson's World Cup castles: Itoje, Martin, Ribbans, Chessum (Launchbury if Chessum doesn't fit)