Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell are going head to head for the England No 10 jersey against France after both were retained in a trimmed down squad with the latter enlisting the help of Jonny Wilkinson to solve his goalkicking troubles before the crunch Six Nations match on Saturday.
Steve Borthwick cut George Ford from his squad on Tuesday, leaving the recently recalled Smith in line to make the 23-man squad against France and vying with Farrell for the fly‑half berth. In a blow for the England head coach, however, Courtney Lawes has been ruled out of the rest of the championship with a shoulder injury.
Borthwick must now decide whether to stick by Farrell at No 10 or, assuming he does not drop his captain, shift him to inside‑centre and start Smith, who has made late cameos from the bench in England’s past two matches.
Smith has returned to the squad this week after he was dropped from the training camp in Brighton last week in order to get more game time with Harlequins, emphatically proving a point with a man‑of‑the‑match display against Exeter. The England assistant coach Kevin Sinfield confirmed Smith was “in the mix” for selection.
Farrell struggled in the narrow victory against Wales last time out – particularly from the tee, missing four kicks at goal. He has been on target with only seven of his 15 kicks in the competition to date with a success rate of 47%.
By comparison, Johnny Sexton’s is 89% while France’s Thomas Ramos is 76%. In the autumn Farrell began flawlessly with 100% records against Argentina, Japan and New Zealand but dropped off against South Africa and is yet to recover from that slump.
Wilkinson established an ad hoc relationship with England under Eddie Jones and it is an arrangement that has continued under Borthwick at their training base in Bagshot. Confirming he has worked with the World Cup‑winning fly-half in an attempt to arrest his kicking dip, Farrell said: “Part of the answer is trying not to work every single kick out and bounce around from one thing to another.
“It’s just to kick. I know how to kick a ball. I’m just going to try to free myself up to do that. It’s also having an attitude about you that irons it all out; a whole view of it, so that you don’t overly pick at little things, which is probably what I’ve been doing. But I’ve been in this situation before and I’m sure I will again at some point, so it’s making sure I get back to enjoying my kicks.”
Sinfield also highlighted the input of the attack coach and former fly‑half Nick Evans on Farrell’s kicking. “It is an area of his game he is incredibly proud of and he has been incredibly successful with over a long period of time,” he said.
“It has been a blip for him and he will work his way through it. He works closely with Jonny and he has a team to support him, we have got Nick who was a great goal kicker in his own right in our coaching team.”
Sinfield conceded that while Ford remains on England’s radar, he would benefit from game time with Sale as he continues to work his way back from a long-term achilles injury. It is a policy that Sinfield believes paid off in Smith’s case and Farrell agreed. “It looked like he enjoyed himself, didn’t it?
“He played very well, so it’s only good for us. You only had to look at the game to see how much he enjoyed himself and how much of a spring he’ll have in his step coming into camp this week.”
For Lawes, meanwhile, it is a devastating blow to miss out, after battling back from neck, glute and calf problems this season to make his first Test appearance since last summer off the bench against Wales.
“When you play the amount of rugby, the amount of minutes, he’s played, in that position, sometimes an injury leads to another one and another one,” Sinfield said. “Some of that is how desperate players are to get back fit but he will be back soon.”
