Youth, experience or a bit of both? At 2pm today, Steve Borthwick names his England team to take on Italy in Rome and there are likely to be a few fresh faces in the matchday 23.
Yesterday, our rugby correspondent Daniel Schofield revealed that Fraser Dingwall will make his debut in midfield at inside centre alongside Henry Slade, while fly-half George Ford has been preferred to the uncapped Fin Smith, who must make do with a place on the bench.
And, in perhaps the most surprising selection, Ethan Roots is set to start at blindside flanker alongside Sam Underhill and Ben Earl.
A former cage fighter, Roots represented New Zealand Maori but qualifies to play for England through his father who was born near Reading. With Borthwick understood to be considering a place on the bench for Welsh-born winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, there could be four dual-qualified players in England’s matchday squad with both Dingwall and Smith having previously been on Scotland’s radar.
Roots, meanwhile, came on to Borthwick’s radar thanks to Richard Hill, the 2003 World Cup-winning flanker and current team manager.
“When we were in Le Touquet and I was walking through the dining room and saw Richard Hill at his computer watching the Premiership Rugby Cup games,” Borthwick said of Roots when announcing his squad for the Six Nations. “He pulled me over and said, ‘come and watch this player for the next two minutes’. I watched him with Hilly, and it was outstanding – the work-rate, physicality he brought to it. Hilly said to me there and then, ‘track this guy’. If Richard Hill tells me to track a back-row forward, I’m listening. He’s got some brain.”