Borthwick makes Vunipola health declare as he explains World Cup squad
Head coach Borthwick justified deciding on Vunipola as England’s sole specialist No 8 for the fast-approaching event in France by explaining how the Saracens talisman has hit peak situation.
Vunipola is near full match health after knee surgical procedure in April, and was named in England’s World Cup 33-man squad by Borthwick on Monday.
The 30-year-old Saracens powerhouse shall be backed up at No 8 by Lewis Ludlam and Ben Earl in England’s squad for France, with Harlequins’ Alex Dombrandt a punchy omission.
Vunipola has sometimes required weeks of match motion to hit high form, however Borthwick insisted the damaging ball-carrier is already impressing in coaching.
“Billy has been fantastic in this training camp, I’ve seen just how hard he’s worked to come back from his injury,” stated Borthwick.
“He looks in great shape and the fittest I’ve ever seen him. I think his experience will add to this squad.”
Borthwick defined that the prospect to work with Vunipola throughout the eight-week pre-season coaching camp has helped tip the stability within the Saracens man’s favour. Vunipola was neglected for choice for your entire Six Nations, then missed the tip of the membership season with that knee downside.
Now although, Borthwick has been uncovered to Vunipola’s finer factors for an prolonged run, and is worked up by what lies forward for the Sydney-born back-rower.
“The opportunity to work with Billy for a long period of time now and the opportunity to understand what the team needs has been crucial,” stated Borthwick.
“Clearly, we’re looking at the squad in its entirety and what it needs in terms of rugby experience in key positions, the balance of the squad. All those factors come into the decision-making process.”
England’s different main World Cup omission was the dropping of Exeter centre Henry Slade. The 30-year-old has been essential to the majority of England’s plans since his 2015 debut, however was edged out from Borthwick’s World Cup plans.
England’s determination to take all three fly-halves in captain Owen Farrell, George Ford and Marcus Smith left no room for Slade, Borthwick revealed.
Owen Farrell (left) will captain the England facet for the event in France
/ PA“I decided we’d have three players in key positions – front row, scrum-half, fly-half – for the obvious reasons,” stated Borthwick.
“That means in the other areas of the team you need to have positional flexibility. That’s part of the selection process.
“Henry has been excellent throughout the training camps. He was clearly disappointed but the message to all the players who haven’t been selected is to be ready to come into the squad.”
England had been disjointed and sluggish in Saturday’s 20-9 Test defeat by Wales in Cardiff. Borthwick’s males now have simply three warm-up matches remaining earlier than opening their World Cup marketing campaign towards Argentina in Marseille on Saturday, September 9.
The possibilities to seek out tactical ingenuity and gameplan fluency are working quick, however Borthwick nonetheless believes England shall be prepared.
“I’ve been really pleased to have the coaching team together for the last eight weeks and I can promise you we’ve been using every minute of the eight weeks as best we can,” stated Borthwick.
“As the players have entered camp, we’ve gone through the fundamentals of what we need to do and then also been speaking to the players about being the fastest learning team. That’s what we need to do. I think we’ve used this eight weeks so far and then the aspects we can take from Saturday’s game, we can take forward to this Saturday.
“I’m looking forward to being back here at Twickenham on Saturday against Wales and then we’ll take it forward to the following weeks to make sure that when we get to play against Argentina that we are ready.”