Henry Slade returned to England duty last night as Steve Borthwick faced growing calls to break up the Marcus Smith-Owen Farrell axis.
The Exeter centre has shaken off the hip injury which kept him out of the Scotland game and is named in a 36-man squad which also features fit-again Henry Arundell. Courtney Lawes, England’s autumn captain, misses out again with his calf problem while Harlequins wing Cadan Murley is dropped from the group preparing for Italy at Twickenham on Sunday.
It is midfield where the main focus lies after World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward joined Lawrence Dallaglio and Stuart Barnes in calling for Borthwick to pick either Farrell or Smith at fly-half.
The pair started the Calcutta Cup, not least because specialist centres Slade, Elliot Daly and Dan Kelly were all injured. A week on Slade’s return might tilt the balance back the other way. Dallaglio said: “The debate on England’s 10-12 axis isn’t going away and must be resolved soon.”
Slade is joined in the squad by Manu Tuilagi, dropped last week when the group was reduced to the final matchday 23. Both are out-and-out centres with 50 caps each. "Scotland ran rings around England at 10, 12 and 13,” Woodward wrote in his newspaper column.
"I think England have now got to choose one or the other when it comes to [Smith] or Farrell. I feel sorry for Farrell. He really is a world-class No 10 but isn’t at that level as an inside centre.
"Sunday’s match against Italy could be a chance to bring Manu Tuilagi back into the fold to try to get him firing as he hasn’t been at his best this season.” Borthwick wasted no time reviewing the Scotland defeat with Ollie Chessum, arguably England’s best performer, agreeing they needed “to address the tough stuff”.
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The Leicester lock added: “You can’t just hide away from it, you can’t veer from it – we're going to have to stare down the barrel and see where we went wrong. That’s how you learn as a team, that’s how you fix those issues.”
Forwards: Ollie Chessum, Dan Cole, Ben Curry, Alex Dombrandt, Tom Dunn, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Joe Heyes, Jonny Hill, Nick Isiekwe, Maro Itoje, Lewis Ludlam, David Ribbans, Bevan Rodd, Sam Simmonds, Kyle Sinckler, Mako Vunipola, Jack Walker, Jack Willis
Backs: Henry Arundell, Owen Farrell, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Ollie Lawrence, Max Malins, Joe Marchant, Alex Mitchell, Henry Slade, Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Freddie Steward, Manu Tuilagi, Jack van Poortvliet, Anthony Watson, Ben Youngs.
