Steve Borthwick confident England can cope if Owen Farrell gets World Cup ban
Owen Farrell will discover his World Cup fate at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday after a red card against Wales that threatens to derail England’s campaign, but Steve Borthwick has insisted his side are “blessed” with fly-half options.
The England captain is facing a ban that would rule him out of the start of the tournament, with Borthwick adamant he will wait on the outcome of Farrell’s hearing before overhauling his plans. George Ford impressed off the bench on Saturday and is the favourite to assume the mantle as first-choice No 10 while Marcus Smith is another backup option.
Borthwick is facing further upheaval with the scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet sustaining a nasty-looking ankle injury during the first half of England’s dramatic 19-17 win against Wales. The Northampton scrum-half Alex Mitchell is on standby and is expected to be called into camp on Monday.
Farrell’s fate will be decided by an all-Australian disciplinary panel and, having been charged with a dangerous tackle on Wales’s Taine Basham – who was forced from the field – he is facing an entry-level ban of six matches. He would hope for some reduction but, given his previous record, the full 50% is unlikely and as he already attended “tackle school” this year, he cannot do so again. As a result, a ban of four or possibly even five matches is the most likely outcome, with Courtney Lawes and Ellis Genge the candidates for the captaincy in Farrell’s anticipated absence.
Four matches would mean Farrell misses England’s remaining warm-up fixtures against Ireland and Fiji as well as their first two World Cup games against Argentina and Japan – arguably his side’s hardest two pool encounters. Given Farrell’s standing among his teammates as captain, it seems unlikely Borthwick would drop him from his World Cup squad altogether, however.
The head coach refused to discuss the incident until the disciplinary hearing has taken place but praised Ford’s performance from the bench while also highlighting Smith’s qualities.
“Once I have all the facts, I’ll deal with the situation,” Borthwick said. “[George] came on to the pitch and he played really well and you’d expect that – we’ve seen that before from George. I think we were blessed with three players we have in that position. Marcus, Owen and George, three world-class players, which I think will be the envy of a lot of countries around the world.
“I think they’ve all got multiple strengths. You saw George’s game management and the use of his kicking game. George’s distribution skills are very, very good. And you’ve got Marcus with his distribution, Marcus with his attacking kick game, Marcus with his running game and then you’ve got Owen, who we know so well at 10 or 12 so we’re blessed to have those options.”
Borthwick also stressed that England are “fully supportive of working on legal tackling” but does not believe his side have a discipline problem despite Freddie Steward, Genge and Henry Arundell all receiving yellow cards on Saturday. Steward was sent to the sin-bin for tackling Josh Adams in the air, Genge for a scrum infringement and Arundell for tackling Liam Williams too early.
“I think all the incidents were completely isolated from the others,” he said. “And I’ll look at them all closely. Let me be clear, we train scenarios for having less players on our team, we train our scenarios regularly. I want 15 players on the pitch.”
Mitchell, meanwhile, was officially released from the training squad at the end of June but was Borthwick’s backup choice during the Six Nations, appearing off the bench in four of England’s five matches.
“We’ve had Alex Mitchell in camp earlier in our preparation period, and Alex played in the Six Nations as well,” Borthwick said. “I’ve asked all of these [standby] players to be ready to be the next man in.”