LONG READ Tour fortunes of English Lions blur selection picture for Borthwick

If history will remember the Lions’ victory in Australia as a green-tinged success story with Ireland’s fingerprints all over it then Steve Borthwick, for one, will not be overlooking England’s contribution.

Over the course of the series his side supplied 10 Test Lions, which you would imagine bodes well for when England next take the field – against the Wallabies – at home on 1 November.

Yet autumn selection for Borthwick is not quite so simple as taking those 10 en bloc and colouring in around them.

The three Englishmen in the Lions’ starting line-up in Sydney – Maro Itoje, Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman – are guaranteed starters but after that the picture starts to grow a little more blurred.

Of the Lions bench, Alex Mitchell is also nailed on to start, as are the props Ellis Genge and Will Stuart, but the position around the other three is more nuanced.

Owen Farrell we will come to a little later.

Ollie Chessum has to be involved somewhere but if George Martin has recovered from the shoulder nerve injury which ended his season early, his extra clout may well make him the preferred choice alongside Itoje.

So Chessum at No 6 then? Well maybe, but Borthwick has myriad back-row options.

If Australia have their full complement available up front, including Will Skelton and Rob Valetini, England need to be able to match their power and size.

Ben Earl, another Test bench Lion, is one of them – and he started England’s last game of the Six Nations against Wales at No 8. But after the way Tom Willis played on the Argentina tour, Borthwick has further food for thought there. Willis was magnificent against opposition who were every bit as challenging as the Wallabies.

If Australia have their full complement available up front, including Will Skelton and Rob Valetini, England need to be able to match their power and size. At least in the first 50 minutes.

For that mission, it may make sense for Borthwick to go with a big ball-carrying No 8 like Willis and another lineout forward at No 6 in Chessum either side of Tom Curry.

Which means no starting place for Earl.

He may well have to make do with a bench role alongside the explosive Chandler Cunningham-South, who can provide second row and No 6 cover.

That leaves no room for Henry Pollock. Or Sam Underhill. Or Ben Curry. Or Guy Pepper… England’s back row is rugby’s ultimate quart-into-a-pint-pot operation.

The other logjam area where the Lions tour has only served to muddy the waters is at No 10.

The 10th English Test Lion from the 2025 series was Marcus Smith. He ended the First Test at stand-off for the Lions, having come off the bench to replace Finn Russell. By virtue of his versatility he, temporarily at least, put himself ahead of Fin Smith, who became a somewhat forgotten figure Down Under.

With the way George Ford directed the England side in their series victory against the Pumas, does Fin Smith even make the 23 for the autumn?

How that affects Fin Smith in England terms will be interesting. With the way George Ford directed the England side in their series victory against the Pumas, does he even make the 23 for the autumn?

If he doesn’t, that would represent a spectacular fall from grace for a player who, in his last sighting in white, had the England attack firing.

But Fin Smith’s half-back partnership with Mitchell, alongside another Saint in Fraser Dingwall, worked well for the national side at the back end of the Six Nations.

There would seem to be a very good case for Borthwick to continue with the harmony provided by the Northampton trio.

The other twist on that though is that Seb Atkinson had a great start to his England Test career in Argentina in Dingwall’s injury-enforced absence. He is the man in possession.

Decisions, decisions…

The eternal debate around the No 12 shirt brings us back to Farrell.

Back in international rugby again, he would offer a truckload of experience, a ferocious drive and priceless leadership should he decide to make himself available for England once more.

Whether he will want to is a question in itself, of course. He may judge it simply too much hassle given his reappearance on the international scene in Lions colours – particularly as a Test Lion – stirred up the hornet’s nest which seems to surround him again.

Farrell may elevate his game again back at Saracens at the start of next season and that may lead Borthwick to reappraise his involvement, but the England head coach needs to apply the long lens here.

At least the nepotism stick could not be used to beat him with, if Borthwick was the one calling him up.

But although he kept his head above water with the Lions – which was quite an achievement given he had played so little rugby all season – there wasn’t enough from Farrell to make an unanswerable case to be part of the England side again, even if he wanted that.

He may elevate his game again back at Saracens at the start of next season and that may lead Borthwick to reappraise his involvement, but the England head coach needs to apply the long lens here.

Farrell will be 36 by the time of the next World Cup – too long in the tooth surely to be part of England’s thinking.

The same applies to Jamie George, who will turn 37 during the course of the tournament.

George was superb against the Pumas in the First Test before his Lions call-up took him out of the Second Test, but time beats every player in the end. Logic dictates that George is unlikely to still be operating at that level at the 2027 World Cup.

It would be a particularly tough call to move on from the durable Saracen, particularly as Theo Dan has still to convince totally at Test level, but if he is ever to do so he needs to be given the opportunity.

With their know-how, Ford and Daly could be the perfect Test match closers for the England coach.

There is no benefit to be gained from jettisoning experience simply for the sake of it, of course. In Ford and Elliot Daly, Borthwick has two 30-somethings who played some of their best rugby this summer. If Daly had not had the misfortune to break his forearm, he could well have been a Test Lion again in Australia.

It is a fine line but, at 32 they should both just about have another couple of years in them. With their know-how, they could be the perfect Test match closers for the England coach.

Borthwick has a lot to consider. The Six Nations, the Americas tour and the Lions all need to be thrown into the pot.

But with one eye on the Wallabies, the opposition, and another on Australia, the 2027 World Cup hosts, this is what England may well look like in the opening game of the autumn.

Possible England team v Australia (1 Nov, 2025): Furbank; Feyi-Waboso, Lawrence, Dingwall, Freeman; F Smith, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Stuart, Itoje, Martin, Chessum, T Curry, T Willis. Replacements: Dan, Baxter, Heyes, Cunningham-South, Earl, Van Poortvliet, Ford, Daly.