The world’s greatest teams know who plays when everyone is fit and horses-for-courses selection won’t help Steve Borthwick

When it comes to team selection, it’s important to remember that everything is subjective. Different coaches, five million different fans and the 80,000 people in the stadium will all have different views, different affiliations and different opinions about who should be playing for England. It plays a large part of every Test week and it’s fantastic because it creates debate, it gets people talking.

It is not specific to England either but the problem with Steve Borthwick’s recent team selections is that I just wish it felt like it was coming from a place of understanding exactly what his best team is and precisely how to deliver their best gameplan. I’m not sure we have clarity on either of those things yet and as much as I understand the notion of horses for courses, I would much prefer to have a sense that selection is first and foremost about yourselves rather than the opposition.

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