{"id":644376,"date":"2025-12-20T14:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644376\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T14:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:43:14","slug":"england-snubs-honest-dont-know-exactly-where-i-sit-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644376\/","title":{"rendered":"England snub’s honest ‘don’t know exactly where I sit’ admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exeter Chiefs back-rower Ethan Roots remains hopeful of a possible England recall, following a \u2018hard\u2019 year away from the Test stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New Zealand-native won all four of his Test caps for Steve Borthwick\u2019s side during the 2024 Six Nations, but has not featured since their dramatic win over Ireland during that Championship.<\/p>\n

In the time since, Roots was named in the wider 33-man touring party to Japan and New Zealand, as well as an initial mini-camp ahead of the 2024 Autumn Nations Series, but has since been omitted from the senior squad.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s about proving it to myself that I wasn\u2019t just a one-time fluke\u2019<\/p>\n

While he has had to bide his time out of the Test spotlight, Roots has been a standout performer for Exeter in the early stages of the new season, form which earned him a call into the England<\/a> A squad in November, and he is hoping further good performances will see him back in the senior squad sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a no-brainer, I\u2019d love to be back involved,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was hard not being involved last year, but I can see the reasons why.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think I\u2019m putting myself in the right position to at least ask some questions and push for a jersey. I\u2019ll just keep chipping away here and hopefully get a call at some point. Fingers crossed, I get a chance to prove myself again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s why everyone plays rugby, and I\u2019m here to play international rugby. That\u2019s been my goal from the start. Lots of people have written me off from an early stage, and I always thought it would be nice to prove them wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s about proving it to myself that I wasn\u2019t just a one-time fluke and show my worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exeter Chiefs \u2018looking to what comes next\u2019 as Rob Baxter cites area club have worked \u2018really hard\u2019 to change<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Exeter Chiefs coaching merry-go-round continues as New Zealander joins Rob Baxter\u2019s staff<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While Roots might be getting back to the form that initially earned him a spot in Borthwick\u2019s starting XV, he faces an unenviable challenge to get back into the senior group.<\/p>\n

The back-row is by far England\u2019s strongest positional area at this current moment in time. Ben Earl, Sam Underhill and Tom Curry have been stalwarts for Borthwick<\/a> throughout his time as head coach, while Chandler Cunningham-South, Guy Pepper, Henry Pollock and Ben Curry have emerged as key components of the 23-man match-day squad in recent times.<\/p>\n

Around that, too, the likes of Ted Hill, Alex Dombrandt, Jack Kenningham, Tom Pearson, Will Evans and even Exeter colleague Greg Fisilau are also looking to earn their spot back in Borthwick\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an EPS (England playing squad), and I\u2019m not a part of that at the moment,\u201d Roots admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s a wider squad, not just the one that comes in (to camp). I don\u2019t know exactly where I sit, but all I can do is churn out good performances here, and hopefully that will come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a plethora of loose forwards in the PREM, so he (Borthwick) hasn\u2019t got an easy job of picking, but I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m putting my hand up each week and showing I\u2019ve got the worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018He just has to carry on with how he is doing\u2019<\/p>\n

His words also follow a previous showing of support from Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter, who insists he has to just carry on with what he\u2019s doing right now to get back into contention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he just has to carry on with how is doing (to get back in the squad),\u201d Baxter said back in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s worked extremely hard in pre-season, he\u2019s a key member of the squad, he\u2019s driving all the correct messages on how we want to play and turn up, and then he\u2019s following through with it himself on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s playing with great physicality and great discipline at the same time, which is tough to achieve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat puts him back in the eye (of Steve Borthwick), and I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be long before you see him there or thereabouts if he carries on the trajectory he\u2019s on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: England: Six players who could make their Test debuts in 2026 including \u2018inevitable\u2019 call-up and \u2018all-round package\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exeter Chiefs back-rower Ethan Roots remains hopeful of a possible England recall, following a \u2018hard\u2019 year away from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,6874,4884,225,90462,12,6875,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-644376","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-exeter-chiefs","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-internationals","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-premiership","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115752429698712272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644376","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=644376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}