Legendary centre Will Greenwood suggests that England should return to selecting specialist centres and a fly-half.
Newly appointed England Head Coach Steve Borthwick, has gotten off to a losing start in charge at Twickenham.
In the opening match of the 2023 Guinness Six Nations, Borthwick’s men were defeated by a resolute Scottish side 29-23. The Calcutta Cup remains in Scotland, with Borthwick now turning his attention to this Sunday’s opponents, Italy.
2003 World Cup winner Greenwood believes despite the midfield corundum, England should also should be addressing the broader problems with their attacking game.
Fly-half and two centres:
“I’ve sort of felt that [England need to] pick a fly-half and pick two centres,” said Greenwood.
“Steve’s hand has been slightly forced; he could have picked Manu, but with Dan Kelly out – I think which is where they could have gone – Slade out, Daly out, a lot of his centres were unavailable.
“If you take away from the individuals and actually explore what those individuals are doing, having watched the game three times now to try to find shoots of recovery, everything is a little too deep and not relevant to the personnel.”
Primary concern:
Greenwood added: “I actually think it’s more of an issue for Nick Evans and the coaching staff to give players the confidence to go ‘there’s the opposition’s nose, go there and don’t be back here and give the opposition the initiative’.”
COMPETITION
Greenwood’s new centre partnership:
13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
12. Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks)
Sir Clive Woodward named ‘worst’ 2023 Six Nations pundit
We’ve gorged ourselves on every Six Nations match over the weekend and have seen more of Gabby Logan and Mark Pougatch than our own families in the process – but which pundits have impressed us the most?
With every match live on terrestrial television, via BBC or ITV, a core set of pundits will make themselves familiar figures over the next month and half.
One Twitter user has taken it upon themselves to rank them from worst to best, and the results are certainly interesting. He’s also ranked the commentators.