Only two Lions make Gallagher Premiership team of the season

Seven England internationals have been included in the Gallagher Premiership team of the season.

England captain Maro Itoje is joined by current England team-mates Ted Hill, Ben Curry, Tom Willis, George Ford and Tom Roebuck in the squad selected by an expert panel, with Bath’s Tom Dunn being the seventh England international, who earned the last of his three caps in 2020.

England hopeful Joe Batley, who was recently named in a 33-player training squad by Steve Borthwick, has made the team in the second-row, as well as his Bristol Bears team-mate Gabriel Ibitoye, who failed to make Borthwick’s squad. The winger’s inclusion will exert more pressure on the England head coach to select him for summer internationals against Argentina and the USA, particularly with Tommy Freeman and Elliot Daly absent with the British and Irish Lions.

Fellow Bristolian, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, whose eligibility for England next year remains uncertain, also features in the team.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Bath

Bristol

The foreign influence in the XV comes from Welshmen Nicky Smith and Tomos Williams, Springboks Thomos du Toit and Robert du Preez (van Rensburg was also born in South Africa) and Argentina’s Santi Carreras.