Frontline England players started less than 40% of their clubs’ regular season Premiership matches in the 2022-23 campaign, the Guardian can reveal, exposing the full extent of one of the domestic game’s biggest problems.
The 10 players who featured in eight or nine of England’s nine matchday squads this season made a combined total of 79 starts in the Premiership out of a possible 203, which equates to 39%. The England captain, Owen Farrell, made the most (11) while Jack van Poortvliet made the least (four). The average across the 10 – the others being Freddie Steward, Henry Slade, Marcus Smith, Ellis Genge, Kyle Sinckler, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Maro Itoje – was 7.9 matches.
