The England back row is fast turning into the highest-stacked shelf in the supermarket for Steve Borthwick.
As he finalises his line-up to face France A this weekend in an Allianz Stadium scene-setter for the summer tour to Argentina and the United States, the England head coach has to contend with four frontline absentees. Tom Curry, Ben Earl and Henry Pollock are away with the British and Irish Lions and Ben Curry is managing an injury, but Borthwick still has myriad options available to him.
He has Tom Willis and Alex Dombrandt as specialist number eights, Sam Underhill an experienced Test openside or Jack Kenningham and Guy Pepper as alternatives and then Chandler Cunningham-South, last seen in an England shirt scoring twice against Wales in Cardiff, or Ted Hill, at six.
Emeka Ilione, a gathering force of nature at Leicester, couldn’t even make the squad.
It is an embarrassment of riches for a coach which raises the valid question of whether England have ever had it so good when it comes to a back row crop.
Neil Back was part of the ‘Holy Trinity’ alongside Richard Hill and Lawrence Dallaglio, the magnificent back row which helped England to World Cup glory in 2003.
They are showing promise and skill but none of them have done it at international level yet. Take Pollock as an example. He has come out of the blue this year but club rugby is not anywhere near international football.
He recognises the talent on display but suggests there may be some recency bias at play.
The text comes back from the great Leicester flanker with a list of additional names from his era: “Corry, Worsley, Moody, Sanderson, Diprose, Clarke, Ojomoh, Pool-Jones… and before that Winterbottom, Rees, Richards, Teague, Skinner, Rodber, Hall, Robinson etc.”
Point made.
“There’s a lot of young back rowers coming through but England have always had a lot of back rowers,” said Back, when we speak.
“They are showing promise and skill but none of them have done it at international level yet. Take Pollock as an example. He has come out of the blue this year but club rugby is not anywhere near international football. He scored against Wales when they were waiting for the final whistle in what was a 17th successive defeat – and I say that with no pleasure. I think he will be great but we don’t know that yet.
“Pepper has impressed all year at club level too. But it’s whether they can make that step internationally.”
It is Back’s wish Pepper be handed the seven shirt he wore with such distinction this weekend.
Player of the match in the Premiership final and in the semi-final win over Bristol the previous week, the 22-year-old is flying and, treble-winning celebrations at Bath or not, Back thinks he is in the form to be given a run with England.
Back was at the Allianz Stadium last weekend for the league showpiece – sitting next to another legendary back row in Zinzan Brooke – and they both liked what they saw from Pepper at the breakdown and with ball in hand in scoring the second-half try that was subsequently disallowed.
“We were paying particular interest to the back row and Pepper went well,” said Back.
“We know what Underhill can do so let’s give Pepper a shot with Cunningham-South and Tom Willis and have Ted Hill come off the bench to win the game.
“If they take their chances then hopefully it will be even more difficult to choose the back row in the autumn when everyone is back.”
If you’re good enough, you’re big enough. By the time the big guys are bending down you’ve already got the ball.
France A will be an odd, inevitably disjointed sort of game. The Top 14 play-offs are still going on so the French will be an unknown quantity but there should be no shortage of motivation for England with the squad for the summer tour yet to be picked.
Borthwick took 36 players to Japan and New Zealand last summer and he can be expected to travel with a similar-sized squad this time around for what Back expects to be a challenging tour.
“The Lions are going over to play Australia who are ranked eighth in the world,” he said. “Argentina are ranked sixth, above England. They will be taking on what is on paper a stronger opposition than the British and Irish Lions are facing Down Under. Those are the facts.
“It’s going to be a physical, tough test. It’s a great opportunity for these young England lads coming into the squad and those on the fringe of the 23 to show they can survive and play at that level.”
The 2017 tour to Argentina was Tom Curry’s proving ground. He was five days shy of his 19th birthday when he made his Test debut in San Juan. England went on to win that series 2-0.
Maybe it will prove as seminal a trip for Pepper. While Pollock will be operating under the full glare of the bright lights a Lions tour is always bathed in, Pepper will be taking his next steps away from the global publicity which could be beneficial at his stage of development.
It will be a tough gig against grizzlies such as Marcos Kremer who, in keeping with Argentina’s love of back row poundage, is two inches taller and two stones heavier than Pepper, but Back – who fought against the size odds all his career – does not see that as a problem.
“If you’re good enough, you’re big enough. By the time the big guys are bending down you’ve already got the ball. You just need the aerobic capacity to do it time and time again.
A back row is all about the blend. When I played with Lawerence and Hilly we had a good balance because we all knew each other’s strengths and the areas each of us weren’t so good at.
“In today’s game you need speed in the contact area, someone who can turn the ball over and aid with the continuity of their team – someone to make the backs look good.
“A back row is all about the blend. When I played with Lawrence and Hilly we had a good balance because we all knew each other’s strengths and the areas each of us weren’t so good at. I wasn’t probably the best choice to make a dent in a defence but I could be there for an offload or to ensure the ball was really quick and in terms of turning over ball, I’d do that more than the other two.
“We played together more than 40 times I think and the more you play together the less you need to think and the more automatic things become.
“It won’t be automatic from day one for these guys but the better the player, the quicker that process is.”
