So much for cohesion and continuity. The thought was that England would keep consistency in selection for Fiji to continue to build momentum into a campaign-defining encounter with the All Blacks; instead, it is a new look line-up fashioned, in part, out of necessity for their second fixture of November.
Of course, Steve Borthwick would have liked to start captain Maro Itoje, wing Tom Roebuck and perhaps full-back Freddie Steward, too. But selection is seldom that simple, and so it has proved again. Injuries ruled all three out of at least a portion of this week’s training – while Itoje remains on the bench, and as a co-captain, Roebuck and Steward sit out entirely with the former in a race to be fit for New Zealand. The impact on the backline is significant: Tommy Freeman had been expected to continue his centre development but is shifted back to the wing to replace Roebuck’s size and spring, while the selection of Marcus Smith at full-back is indicative of a slight shift in strategy.
