England explain continued backing of George Furbank at full-back

Steve Borthwick has explained why he resisted the temptation to restore Freddie Steward and instead kept faith in George Furbank as the England full-back to take on Ireland on Saturday. The Northampton No15 was a shock inclusion to face Scotland last month, his first Test selection in two years.

He started well at Scottish Gas Murrayfield, scoring an early try, but his game then became affected by errors, including the spill that led to Duhan van der Merwe running in the second of the tries in his game-deciding hat-trick.

Steward, who had dominated the No15 England shirt since his 2021 international breakthrough, was fit and available for selection versus the title-chasing Irish.

Marcus Smith, who started at full-back instead of Steward in last October’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Fiji, was also a contender for the position as he pitched up fit this week after overcoming the injury that left him unavailable for England’s opening three matches of the 2024 Guinness Six Nations.

Borthwick, though, decided to stick with Furbank for the second game in succession, naming Smith on the bench and leaving Steward out of the match day 23. Why? “One of the factors is continuity in selection,” suggested the head coach.

“George is a player who has played really well this season and you saw aspects in that game where he was bringing all his talent onto that pitch. You saw the way he carried the ball back.

“There was one moment there when he gave an offload and he went to ground. The critical thing was, was it the right decision to give an offload? I thought it absolutely was, we weren’t reading off him.

“Part of that is players having time playing together, understanding when a player is going to make an offload, when a player is going to do something. That comes from spending time together and playing together and understanding each other that bit more.”