{"id":48481,"date":"2025-04-25T04:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T04:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48481\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T04:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T04:50:13","slug":"ranked-englands-fly-half-depth-chart-ahead-of-summer-tour-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48481\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranked: England’s fly-half depth chart ahead of summer tour : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fly-half will always be a hugely challenging call for England, but with Fin Smith and Marcus Smith likely to be on the British and Irish Lions tour this summer, Steve Borthwick again has to go back to square one.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Smith has started in all of England\u2019s last 12 Tests, Harlequins ace Marcus starting eight and Northampton\u2019s Fin four. But with the pair likely to be headed out to Australia this summer, Borthwick will need to find his new number 10 pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

He also won\u2019t have the familiar name of Owen Farrell to call upon either, given he is currently plying his trade in France, but who will he turn to? This summer\u2019s tour could give him a chance to blood in some promising talent to his side, with a number of England A and U20 stars possibly vying for a spot, but there is also one obvious candidate who remains as well.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, here is our rundown of the fly-half options open to the England<\/a> boss ahead of their summer tour to the Americas.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s fly-half depth chart for summer tour assessed<\/p>\n

Test starter: George Ford<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s still very plausible that George Ford will finally become a Lion this summer, but if Andy Farrell chooses not to bring him, he will more than likely get into Borthwick\u2019s starting XV. The Oldham-native is brimming with confidence at the moment as he\u2019s once again helping Sale Sharks mount a late charge for the Premiership title, and his very brief cameo against Wales in the Six Nations shows he can play this new style Borthwick<\/a> wants.<\/p>\n

On top of his obvious qualities, Ford could be a vital leader for this tour, considering the bulk of the squad will be pretty fresh-faced. He has so much experience at both Test and club level, with 99 caps to his name and various pieces of silverware for England and Leicester Tigers, and that could be incredibly valuable for the rest of the squad. Is he in the captaincy debate?<\/p>\n

England legend Ben Youngs announces \u2018bittersweet\u2019 retirement from rugby<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

On tour: Charlie Atkinson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gloucester ace Charlie Atkinson is very highly thought of by the RFU top dogs, so you feel he will tour in the summer. Atkinson has featured well for both England A and Gloucester in recent seasons, and crucially, the sort of attacking play both teams have adopted puts him in a favourable position to slot into the senior side too. He already seems to be improving as the years go by, but bringing him on this tour would likely speed that process up, and that can only be a good thing for the future of the Test team.<\/p>\n

Ranked: England\u2019s centres depth chart as once troubled area creates a selection headache for Steve Borthwick<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Outside bets: Harvey Skinner, Orlando Bailey, George Furbank<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are also a few bolters who will be keen to get onto the plane come the summer, in the form of Harvey Skinner and Orlando Bailey. The duo have been starved of minutes this year, but have both impressed when deployed and again would only improve from this experience. Bailey does seem the most likely of the two, though, considering he has been involved in the England A set-up this season.<\/p>\n

A left-field call could also be to start George Furbank at fly-half this summer. The Northampton star\u2019s\u00a0best position, by far, is at full-back, but he does have some decent experience at 10 for the Saints and his playmaking skills are evidently an important part of Borthwick\u2019s new attacking style \u2013 after all, he moved Marcus Smith to 15 to replicate what Furbank does. It\u2019s probably not going to happen, but it\u2019s an avenue Borthwick could explore if he chooses.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ranked: England\u2019s wing depth chart ahead of summer tour as emerging \u2018Test-match animal\u2019 handed golden chance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fly-half will always be a hugely challenging call for England, but with Fin Smith and Marcus Smith likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[26345,393,126,20681,26346,26347,225,522,12,26348,4151,79,26349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-48481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-charlie-atkinson","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-features","11":"tag-george-ford","12":"tag-george-furbank","13":"tag-harvey-skinner","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-international","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-orlando-bailey","18":"tag-rugby","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-steve-borthwick","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114396805577326967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}