For the first time in over a year, England will start a Test match without Ollie Lawrence in the midfield when play gets underway in Cardiff in round five of the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday.
The centre’s Achilles injury in the opening minutes of the 47-24 victory over Italy on Sunday will have a devastating impact on Bath’s, England’s and even the British and Irish Lions’ midfield for the foreseeable future.
England head coach Steve Borthwick was quick to praise the way his side “adapted to an early disruption with Ollie Lawrence’s injury against a really tricky opponent,” after the match, but the challenge he now faces is working out how he wants his midfield to look moving forward without Lawrence’s formidable presence.
Fraser Dingwall was Lawrence’s partner at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, who was making his first England appearance in over a year, and now looks certain to retain his starting berth against Wales, but there are plenty of options as to who will line up alongside him. Here are five:
Wales
England
Henry Slade
Having been a regular fixture in the midfield alongside Lawrence, Henry Slade found himself out of the squad entirely to take on Italy, with Dingwall stepping into his No.12 shirt.
Now with Lawrence out of the picture, the most simple move is to reinsert Slade back into the centres, presumably in his more comfortable role at outside centre.
The Exeter Chiefs star was reportedly carrying a knock last week, but should he be fully fit, he would likely be Borthwick’s first choice. With that said, the profile of a Dingwall-Slade partnership is vastly different to one with Lawrence in it, and England may therefore look for stylistic similarities.
Elliot Daly
Daly’s versatility proved invaluable at the Allianz Stadium, as he slotted into Lawrence’s position, having originally started at full-back.
The Saracen put in a faultless display at outside centre, the position he started his career in but has seldom been deployed there for England.
Borthwick may choose to stick to the backline that played the majority of the match against Italy, with Marcus Smith starting at full-back. But his original plan was to have Daly at full-back, and he may want to see how that unfolds again.
Tommy Freeman
When Smith ran on to the pitch in the opening minutes to replace Lawrence, many waited with bated breath to see what shape England’s backline would take.
While Daly moved into the No.13 channel, a move that would have been popular was for Freeman to slot infield.
England’s wing has long been tipped to eventually shift into the centres, where the team would be able to make better use of his 103kg frame.
The 24-year-old has plenty of game time under his belt at outside centre for Northampton Saints, but Borthwick has been loath to experiment with the move. When quizzed after the match whether Freeman is a possibility outside centre, Borthwick said he has “no doubt” about the Saint or Daly starting there.
Ben Earl
How bold does Borthwick feel?
Earl finished the match against the Azzurri in the centres, scoring a try, and this is a move England have flirted with in the dying embers of matches. Is it time to unleash England’s most potent carrier there from the start?
This would be a daring move, but it is one that has picked up momentum in recent months, with Eddie Jones even calling for the back-row to start at inside centre. In terms of a hard-running centre, which tends to be the backbone of any Test backline, Earl is perhaps the closest to a like-for-like replacement for the Bath man.
But would the Principality Stadium be place to trial this move? Wales are in disarray and are the team to try this out against in terms of rankings, but they will inevitably turn up for their bitter rivals.
He who dares…
Oscar Beard
Harlequins’ uncapped centre Beard has been a member of England’s squad all Championship, but has been nothing more than an onlooker when it has come to matchdays.
England’s tour of Argentina later this year seems a better time for Borthwick to hand out a first cap, but the 23-year-old is nevertheless in the conversation for the coming weekend.
The England head coach even singled Beard’s ball-carrying as a “real point of difference” when assessing his replacements for Lawrence after the victory.
