The rookie prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour is in line for an England debut against Japan on Sunday, with Steve Borthwick expected to pick the 20-year-old on the bench.
Opoku-Fordjour was only called into Borthwick’s squad when Joe Marler announced his international retirement after this month’s defeat by New Zealand but caught the eye in last week’s England A victory over Australia at the Stoop. Before that match, Borthwick said: “I have been really positive about what I’ve seen from Asher,” and the Guardian understands Sale’s Opoku-Fordjour is in the frame for a place among the replacements when Eddie Jones locks horns with his former employers at Twickenham for the first time.
Borthwick is believed to be weighing up a handful of changes after five defeats on the spin and three in a row this autumn. Tom Curry is available again after recovering from a concussion while the head coach is also understood to be contemplating a surprise place on the bench for another would-be debutant Cadan Murley, who scored two tries against Australia A last week. The Harlequins wing was called up with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso still nursing a concussion and Elliot Daly withdrawing from the squad through injury but is said to have impressed the coaching staff this week. Borthwick is due to name his team on Friday afternoon.
Opoku-Fordjour helped England Under-20s win the junior World Cup over the summer, as they beat France in the final on the back of a dominant scrum. Borthwick bemoaned England’s scrummaging problems after the summer tour of Japan and New Zealand but alongside Opoku-Fordjour, the tighthead props Afo Fasogbon and Billy Sella have also shown promise.
The Sale youngster was the first of that cohort to be called into the senior squad, however, and would be the first to win a cap if he makes the match-day squad and takes to the field on Sunday. He has the rare ability to play on both sides of the scrum and, while Sale see him as a tighthead, England believe his future lies at loosehead. With Marler retired, a debut for Opoku-Fordjour could represent a further changing of the guard in what may be Dan Cole’s 118th and final appearance for England.
Cole issued a staunch defence this week of Borthwick, who insisted after last Saturday’s defeat by South Africa he has the “absolute support” of his employers at the Rugby Football Union. On his For the Love of Rugby podcast, Cole said: “Yes, he’s the right man for the job. We’ve lost, is it five now on the bounce? But it’s like … we’ve played New Zealand twice away, France away, South Africa at home. Yes, we should have beaten Australia, that’s probably the one big anomaly.”
