Steve Borthwick’s Potential England Call-Ups: 5 Uncapped Stars

England face Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina at Allianz Stadium this November, acting as Test match preparation for the 2026 Six Nations. 14 uncapped players attended a training camp this May in preparation for the summer tour with a number featuring against Argentina and the USA as Borthwick’s side won all three of their games in the Americas.

With attention now on the autumn, here are five uncapped players who could be in line for a national team call-up.

England’s summer tour to Argentina saw hooker Theo Dan struggle, and the 24-year-old understudy to Jamie George may need a little bit of time to develop before playing Test rugby again.

That potentially opens up a spot for someone else to step into, and someone who may relish the chance is the experienced Harry Thacker, who is yet to pull on an England jersey despite being 31 years old.

After spending five years at Leicester Tigers, he joined Bristol Bears in 2018 where he has since established himself as a very solid and dependable Prem player.

While the time may have passed for him to play internationally, as far as reserve options go, it may do Steve Borthwick no harm to select someone with over ten years of experience playing in the Prem. It is a strong position, with Luke Cowan-Dickie also in the fray, but Thacker is not a bad shout.

Ilione is unfortunate in the fact that England are absolutely stacked in his position, which means that he is yet to be selected for Borthwick’s side, however that could change soon. He was picked in May to a training squad ahead of the Argentina tour, meaning that he is clearly someone who is on the radar of the coaching staff.

His key attribute is how strong he is in the jackal, being one of the best in the entire league at the breakdown, and something that could bode well in the future for Test rugby. Ilione also balances his time at Tigers with studying medicine.

Centre is a bit of a problem position for England, although they do seem to have a lot of talented young players coming through. One of those is Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, a family friend of Manu Tuilagi who looks set to follow in the footsteps of him.

It has been a meteoric rise in the past year for the 22-year-old, who only broke into the Sale Sharks first team at the start of 2025 after a loan spell at Champ side Caldy.

A strong carrier, Ma’asi-White is also an intelligent player who can distribute the ball extremely well. It seems to only be a matter of time before he gets some international recognition.

He has almost exclusively been playing on the wing recently for Sarries and while he may not quite be at the level to break in there, his versatility could put him in a good position to get called up, especially if Daly is unavailable at some point. He has previously featured at fullback, centre and fly-half, however, lacks a bit of experience there in recent times.

Despite being 29, Joe Batley is yet to make an appearance for his country but looks to be closer than ever to playing internationally. Yet another who was in the training camp in May, Batley is on Borthwick’s radar and could break in at second row, with the bonus of being able to play back row.

Chandler Cunningham-South fills the role of lock/back row right now, but if he was unavailable to play then there is no reason that Batley couldn’t step in and do a job.

George Martin’s long-term injury issues may also open a door for the Bristol player, who was outstanding in the Prem last year whenever he pulled on a jersey.