The England head coach, Steve Borthwick, has defended his decision to pick Tom Curry for Sunday’s match against Japan two weeks after he sustained a second head injury inside two months, despite criticism from concussion campaigners.
Curry was knocked unconscious during England’s defeat by Australia earlier this month after a nasty collision with Rob Valetini and subjected to the 12-day stand-down period in line with World Rugby’s return-to-play protocols.
The 26-year-old also sustained a concussion when playing for Sale on the opening weekend of the Premiership season against Harlequins and in 2022 he returned home early from the England tour of Australia due to a third concussion in six months. Earlier this week, the assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge explained how England were working with Curry to adjust his all-action technique in an effort to keep him safe.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso also suffered a head injury against Australia but was not called back into camp last week after reporting symptoms over the weekend. The 21-year-old medical student also ruled himself out of England’s last Six Nations match, against France, earlier this year due to concussion.
The player welfare lobby group, Progressive Rugby, described Curry’s return to the squad earlier this week as “hugely disappointing to see a further example of player safety being placed secondary to the desire to play by player and/or management”.
The leading neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart appeared to indirectly criticise the decision to select Curry – who spent seven months on the sidelines last year with a debilitating hip injury – writing on social media: “At a time when we are making great progress in UK-wide concussion management across grassroot sport, it is so important this progress isn’t undermined by elite sport focusing on results over welfare. Unfortunately, some sports just seem unable to read the room or recognise damage their actions can lead to, both for individual players and wider (particularly youth) participants and participation.”
Borthwick, however, was adamant Curry was “raring to go” and it is understood he was cleared by an independent concussion consultant on Wednesday. Borthwick said: “The welfare health of players is paramount. He’s gone through all those protocols, a number of different consultations, independent specialist consultations. He feels great, he’s raring to go. The process has been very thorough. I think firstly, every player is always treated on an individual basis and there are certain protocols. Manny was unavailable for selection because he wasn’t ready. And then there’s a conversation with Tom, a player I have so much respect for, about what he wants to do. He’s a player who is desperate to play this weekend.”
Curry’s return to the side in place of Chandler Cunningham-South is one of two changes made by Borthwick, with George Furbank back at full-back. Curry will be blindside flanker and again teams up with Sam Underhill in a partnership dubbed the “Kamikaze Kids” by Eddie Jones, who makes his first return to Twickenham to face England on Sunday.
As revealed by the Guardian, the 20-year-old prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour will make his debut after being named on the bench. Opoku-Fordjour played loosehead prop when helping England Under-20s to the junior World Cup title over the summer but has the rare ability to play both sides of the scrum and is covering tighthead on Sunday. He takes Dan Cole’s place in the squad, but Borthwick was adamant it does not spell the end of the 37-year-old’s Test career.
The selection of Opoku-Fordjour – who was called into camp earlier this month after Joe Marler’s international retirement – represents a changing of the guard, however. He impressed during England A’s victory over Australia A last weekend and is the first of a young cohort of front-rowers to make their senior bow.
“In his first training session, he side-stepped two players and made a line break,” added Borthwick. “You start seeing straightaway that this is a player with incredible athleticism. He’s a very good scrummager. When you want to understand how good players are you speak to the best players. I think he ended up with a load of stitches over one eye, with a dead leg, he looked like he’d played a physical match. It was training, but that’s the nature, he throws himself into it and that impresses absolutely everybody in the squad.”
England host Japan on the back of five straight defeats but are widely expected to emphatically beat Jones’s side. Borthwick spent four and half years as Jones’s assistant with Japan and England, and was due to meet with his former boss .on Saturday He is expecting the Australian to have a few tricks up his sleeve. After recalling Furbank and Curry, however, and handing Fin Smith a place on the bench for the first time this autumn, Borthwick has vowed that his side will play at a ferocious pace.
“Do I enjoy chatting with Eddie? Yes I do, and I look forward to meeting him,” said Borthwick. “We know what a great coach he is, what a mind, what a great tactician he is. He’s incredibly competitive and he’s in the early stage of developing a Japan team that I’m sure on Sunday will play at pace, present different challenges to us. But we’ve got a lot of pace in our team as well. So when we are in attack, I want incredible pace in the game.”
