{"id":531281,"date":"2025-10-27T14:45:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/531281\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T14:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:45:18","slug":"england-great-explains-why-6-2-bench-split-should-be-binned-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/531281\/","title":{"rendered":"England great explains why 6\/2 bench split should be binned off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired England great Brian Moore has called on Steve Borthwick to go with a 5\/3 forwards\/backs bench split this November so that new attack coach Lee Blackett can best wield his influence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The English are preparing to open their four-match November campaign with this Saturday\u2019s London fixture versus Australia<\/a>, which will be followed by games against Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina.<\/p>\n

Ex-Bath assistant Blackett, who was previously director of rugby at the collapsed Wasps, is now a full-time member of Borthwick\u2019s staff after the RFU reached a deal to buy him out of his contract at The Rec.<\/p>\n

Borthwick was left convinced that he needed to recruit Blackett<\/a> following the impact the assistant made during the summer when filling in for Richard Wigglesworth, who was touring with Andy Farrell\u2019s British and Irish Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBorthwick\u2019s opinion of George Ford is yet to be clarified\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It was September when the RFU confirmed that Blackett would be joining ahead of the Autumn Nations Series, a move that resulted in Wigglesworth switching to defence and Joe El-Abd to the forwards from defence.<\/p>\n

Blackett<\/a> had to work with a 6\/2 bench divide in three of his four England summer matches; the non-cap fixture versus France and the two-game series in Argentina before the 5\/3 split was brought back in for the season-ending match in the USA.<\/p>\n

Overall, the 6\/2 tactic was head coach Borthwick\u2019s preference in seven of England\u2019s 13 matches last season, including that uncapped French game. It was used once in last November\u2019s Autumn Nations Series (versus New Zealand) and then on three occasions in the Six Nations (against Ireland, Italy and Wales).<\/p>\n

Moore, though, now wants Borthwick to abandon 6\/2 and stick with a 5\/3 bench for the upcoming November series. Why? \u201cOwen Farrell\u2019s exclusion has removed one variable at number 10, but Borthwick\u2019s opinion of George Ford is yet to be clarified,\u201d he argued in The Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFord\u2019s attacking form for Sale has been as good as ever and it is a close call between him and Northampton\u2019s Fin Smith to start the more challenging games against Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. I would favour a 5\/3 bench split that allowed Fin Smith to play in at least two of the games.<\/p>\n

New England coach reveals his \u2018biggest fear\u2019 and explains why James Haskell comment has always stuck with him<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

England latest: Predicting Steve Borthwick\u2019s team with four big selection headaches for Wallabies showdown as star in the \u2018form of his life\u2019 misses out<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBorthwick has the relatively easier game against Fiji to experiment but Lee Blackett, England\u2019s newly appointed attack coach, would surely prefer to start with the same half-backs and inside centre against the higher-ranked sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Borthwick does want to achieve this, it makes his choice of the split between forwards and backs on the bench even more important. If he goes for a 6\/2 split, as is becoming increasingly fashionable, that means Marcus Smith, who more naturally covers both fly-half and full-back, is likely to be favoured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would leave Tommy Freeman to cover the number 15 position, given that the absences of George Furbank and Elliot Daly have left Freddie Steward as the only regular club full-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes the bench split decision even more problematic is the fact that unless Borthwick goes for a 5\/3 split, it will be almost impossible to give opportunities to wingers like Henry Arundell, whose pace is something that England fans have longed to see tested at this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs England are not going to face South Africa, this is a series where they can justify choosing three backs on the bench. Like me, many England fans are looking forward expectantly to see what difference Blackett will make to England\u2019s attack and whether he will be able to do something that no coach since Clive Woodward has been able to do \u2013 create a world-class centre partnership.<\/p>\n

England squad: Noah Caluori one of two uncapped players included for Autumn Nations Series as in-form Leicester Tigers star misses out<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u2018outdated\u2019 reason why England\u2019s most capped player wants the RFU to consider rule change<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis problem, which goes back long before the current partnership of Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence, is one that I believe will go a long way to defining England\u2019s World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow a player like Max Ojomoh, a potential number 12 and even 10 cover, is viewed is of particular interest when it comes to this question. And if England really do view Ben Earl as a centre option, let this experiment take place sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore went on to reference the form of the England back-row contenders, labelling Guy Pepper\u2019s at Bath as \u201csensational\u201d and the progression of Henry Pollock as something that will be \u201cfascinating to watch\u201d over the next two years.<\/p>\n

As for an autumn results prediction, Moore signed off: \u201cWith home advantage and this being the start of their season, the bottom line must be for England to emerge with at least three, if not a clean sweep of four wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: England squad: Winners and losers as \u2018serious Test match animal\u2019 returns while youngster\u2019s \u2018rapid ascent\u2019 continues<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired England great Brian Moore has called on Steve Borthwick to go with a 5\/3 forwards\/backs bench split…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[37732,748,393,4884,225,90462,12,26349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-531281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-brian-moore","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-internationals","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-steve-borthwick","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115446672633028596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531281","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=531281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}