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Topsy Ojo: England rejects will 'fight tooth and nail to get their shirts back'
By PA
Topsy Ojo believes now is the right time for Steve Borthwick to freshen up his England squad with one eye looking ahead to the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
On Wednesday, Borthwick named seven uncapped players in the 35-man training camp ahead of next month’s Guinness Six Nations.
Broadcaster Ojo, who won two England caps in 2008, admitted the likes of Billy Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler will be disappointed at missing out on selection, but the introduction of young talent will strengthen their World Cup bid in three years’ time.
He said: “Now is the time to have something new and do something fresh and if you look at the guys he’s (Steve Borthwick) picked, they’re all there on merit and have played incredibly well.
“It’s an exciting squad. There’s a continuity of leadership and emerging young talent.
“Sinckler and Vunipola will be disappointed and you know they’ll go away and fight tooth and nail to get their shirts back.
“It’s the start of a new cycle. Who will benefit from being exposed now? Out of the uncapped players, we need to think who will be playing in Australia in 2027 with 30 caps under their belts and are battle-ready and experienced in international rugby. There’s that long-term vision ahead and it starts now.”
Borthwick, who replaced Eddie Jones in December 2022, had a rocky start to his tenure as England head coach but finished 2023 with a third-placed finish at the World Cup.
Ojo believes the 44-year-old is still the right man to take the side forward.
“Yes, 100 per cent,” Ojo said. “It was a difficult time for him to come in because a lot of the other teams were settled in their processes.
“He’s been through some painful experiences, but ultimately he’s taken this team to a World Cup semi and a bronze-place finish.
“If you look at the squad he’s picked now, he has the talent at his disposal to make England a success.
“Will there be some teething problems early on? Yes. That’s the nature of sport, but it’s a challenge he’ll look forward to and embrace. So is he the man to do it. Absolutely.”
Exeter wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who was born in Cardiff and eligible to play for Wales, is among the new additions and Ojo talked up the 21-year-old.
He said: “I’m happy to see Feyi-Waboso in there. He’s electric and I’m happy to see him exposed at the next level. He’s not played that many senior games but he’s shown enough.”
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Latest Comments
Yet its pathetic. I saw plenty of 7s players who played all season who were great.
Go to commentsAs it is now, players coming through are competing for franchise spots with ABs.
So they have to work their pants off.
They are mentored by All Blacks, they see how to prepare and work and what it means and blah blah blah.
To get a SR start you have to be of a certain quality.
With the top talent overseas, players coming in don’t need to work as hard so they don’t get as good.
That’s Australias problem; not enough competition for spots driving the quality up. The incumbents at the reds or brumbies aren’t on edge because no one is coming for their jersey.
Without All Blacks to lead the off field stuff, our players will not get as good.
South Africa is an example of that. As more and more springboks went overseas, the Super a rugby sides got worse and worse to the point where they were hardly competitive.
The lions got a free pass to the finals with the conference system,
but largely the bulls and stormers and sharks were just nothing like they were and not a serious challenge to any New Zealand side most of the time.
We got scrum practice, but interest in those games plummeted. I’m not paying $30 to go watch the bulls get wasted by a Blues B team.
If NZ was to let players go offshore and still get picked, the crowds would disappear even more for SR, the interest would dissipate, and people would go watch league or basketball or whatever and get their kids into those sports too.
New Zealand rugby just cannot function without a strong domestic comp.
The conveyer belt stops when kids don’t want to go to rugby games because their stars aren’t playing and therefore aren’t inspired to play the game themselves.
We won’t keep everyone, no matter what we do. But we can keep as many as possible.
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