{"id":553045,"date":"2025-11-06T14:19:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/553045\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T14:19:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:19:20","slug":"borthwick-benches-maro-itoje-amid-9-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/553045\/","title":{"rendered":"Borthwick benches Maro Itoje amid 9 changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

England head coach Steve Borthwick has made nine changes to his starting XV to face Fiji this weekend, with captain Maro Itoje among them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The skipper, who is still serving as co-captain alongside starter Ellis Genge, joins Jamie George and Fin Baxter in dropping down to the replacements this weekend, with Bomb Squad members Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Alex Coles also promoted into the starting group.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Marcus Smith, Ollie Lawrence and Fin Smith also come into the run-on XV, with Freddie Steward, Tom Roebuck and George Ford dropping out of the 23.<\/p>\n

England make changes for Fiji clash<\/p>\n

M. Smith will make his return to the side this weekend with 15 on his back, with Steward out of action through a hand injury. He isn\u2019t the only enforced change in the back-three, with Roebuck limping out of training earlier in the week. The injury to the Sale Sharks man has since forced Tommy Freeman back out onto the wing, while also opening the door for Lawrence to make his first appearance in an England<\/a> jersey since rupturing his Achilles in the Six Nations, with the Bath man coming in at 13.<\/p>\n

He joins Fraser Dingwall in the starting midfield, while Northampton Saints pair Fin Smith and Alex Mitchell start in the halves.<\/p>\n

Up front, Chandler Cunningham-South gets the nod at number eight this weekend, a move which pushes Ben Earl over to openside flanker. Guy Pepper completes the back-row, retaining his place at six.<\/p>\n

Ollie Chessum, promoted to vice-captain this weekend, starts in the engine room once again, with Coles joining him in a fresh-looking partnership. Joe Heyes also keeps his spot in the starting XV, with Cowan-Dickie and co-captain Genge completing the front-row.<\/p>\n

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Borthwick has again deployed a 6\/2 split on the bench, with the aforementioned trio of George, Baxter and Itoje joined by Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Tom Curry and Henry Pollock as the forwards on the bench.<\/p>\n

Ben Spencer keeps his place on the replacements list, while Bath teammate Henry Arundell will also make his return to the Test arena from the bench.<\/p>\n

Commenting on his selection, Borthwick<\/a> said: \u201cIt was a pleasing start to the series against Australia last weekend, and we know we\u2019ll need to take another step forward against Fiji,\u201d said Borthwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus for us this week is on improving on last weekend\u2019s performance and continuing to develop our game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiji are a dangerous team with power and quality right across the pitch. They play with physicality and skill, so we\u2019ll need to bring intensity, accuracy and discipline in everything that we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in front of our supporters again at Allianz Stadium means a huge amount to the players, and the team are determined to deliver a performance they can be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team to face Fiji in full<\/p>\n

England:<\/strong> 15 Marcus Smith, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Chandler Cunningham-South, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Guy Pepper, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Alex Coles, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Ellis Genge (cc)
Replacements:<\/strong> 16 Jamie George, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Maro Itoje (cc), 20 Tom Curry, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Henry Arundell<\/p>\n

Date:<\/b>\u00a0Saturday, November 8
Venue:<\/b> Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
Kick-off:<\/b> 17:40 (UK)
Referee:<\/strong> Paul Williams (NZR)\u00a0
Assistant Referees:<\/strong> Luc Ramos (FFR), Katsuki Furuse (JRFU)
TMO:<\/strong> Mike Adamson (SRU)
FPRO:<\/strong> Quinton Immelman (SARU)<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Eddie Jones: \u2018Impressive\u2019 England look like the Springboks with \u2018monsters\u2019 in the pack<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England head coach Steve Borthwick has made nine changes to his starting XV to face Fiji this weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,33405,4884,225,90462,12,26349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-553045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-fiji","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\/115503193405914351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553045","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=553045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}