Steve Borthwick's gamble of naming his squad early can pay off

Several hours after the final whistle in Cardiff on Saturday night, Steve Borthwick will assemble his coaching team in a room in St David’s Hotel for his final World Cup selection meeting.

The scene is likely to be of starkest contrast to the smoke-filled England selection meetings of yore, with tea and coffee the strongest beverage on offer, and the debate centring on data and logic, not gut instinct, and heated argument.

And, unlike some selection meetings that would run long into the night, it seems there are few outstanding issues to nail down.

Reading Borthwick’s body language and interpreting his comments at the team announcement on Thursday, it was possible to draw the conclusion that for all the talk of Saturday’s game against Wales being a final trial, the England head coach already knows his 33-man squad. The odds are on for it being considered but to the point.

“The majority of places I think I’m pretty clear on in terms of where I’m going in selection,” said Borthwick on Thursday.

It serves no harm in terms of motivation and focus to present the perception that some are still fighting for their places – and the final call in the back three and back row could yet be determined by make-or-break performances. Yet, realistically, it is hard to see how performances against an unknown Wales team will have any major impact on the final calls to be made.

And therein lies the rub of Borthwick’s decision to name his 33-man squad way before any of his Six Nations rivals. While the southern hemisphere ‘big four’, who are more advanced in their preparations, will also name their squads next week having just completed the Rugby Championship, Scotland (who will name on Aug 16), France and Wales (Aug 21) and Ireland (Aug 28) are all using their warm-up matches to a much greater extent – the competitive zeal within training camps – to shape their selections.

The risk – and gamble – taken by Borthwick is that he is forgoing the opportunity to allow players to play themselves into contention and also harnessing the competitive edge that might bring the best out of players during the course of the summer training camps.

What if Alex Dombrandt tears it up on Saturday, or Lewis Ludlam has a stinker? The gamble is that by making the call now, Borthwick may live to regret his decision on Saturday night, when he could have allowed himself more time.

Ireland, on paper, are the most cohesive squad in the Six Nations, and yet Andy Farrell wants to squeeze every last drop out of the next month by naming his World Cup squad on deadline day.

Farrell has first-hand experience of this competitive edge when he was England assistant coach to Stuart Lancaster in 2015 and the World Cup squad was named the day after an internal trial game that decided the respective fates of Sam Burgess and Luther Burrell.

Yet players from that playing group talk with hindsight about the draining impact of being on edge in training every day, of trying to maintain a sense of bonhomie with your team-mate and rival, while doing your utmost to impress the coaches at their expense.

What is different about this England training camp is that Borthwick has been utterly brutal in his honesty with the players from the moment the first of them assembled in June. In one-on-one sessions with all of them, he has made it clear where each player stands in the pecking order for each position and what they must do if they want to improve that position.

It is a very different approach, a legacy of his own treatment as a player when he had to deal with calls informing him he was in and out of World Cup squads and also a reflection of the reality that he is effectively trying to catch up on the four-year cycles of teams like France and Ireland in four months. He is right to do so.

“I think that clarity is important so every player can concentrate on being the best player they can be and not think about second guessing my thinking,” said Borthwick.

“I want them to play this Test match to get the team in a position to win. The way we’ve gone into training sessions… thinking about winning that session… ‘Don’t try and think about what I’m thinking. I’ll be up front with you about where you stand, you just go out and train as hard as you can.’

“To be very clear I want the 33 best-placed to get the job done and that’s what I’m working towards. I name the 33 on Monday, we’ve then got another three Test matches to play before we enter the tournament. I’ve no doubt things will change and I and the squad need to be adaptable to the changes that are required.”

Given the extraordinary circumstances he has faced in being handed a hospital pass last December following the sacking of Eddie Jones, of more importance is having the next three games to focus on building combinations and a clear and distinct game plan.

“I think one of the main things that I’m trying to do as as coach is ensure that players think more about what they want to do and what they want to happen rather than what might go wrong.

And I think that’s something with this team in general. I want the players to be able to bring their strengths on to the pitch, I want these players to be able to bring all their personality and character into this England environment. And I want an environment that fosters their strengths.”