Jack Nowell and Jonny May face axe from Steve Borthwick's first England squad
Nowell was one of Eddie Jones' vice-captains as recently as last autumn
Jack Nowell and Jonny May could be the major omissions from Steve Borthwick’s first squad with the new England head coach weighing up whether to overlook the veteran wings, who number 117 caps between them.
Although Nowell was one of Eddie Jones’ vice-captains as recently as last autumn and May is second on England's all-time list of try-scorers with 35 in, Telegraph Sport understands that both are vulnerable.
Elsewhere, Dan Cole, the 35-year-old tighthead prop, will complete a remarkable comeback to the England fold with a first call-up since the 2019 World Cup final. Ben Earl, the dynamic Saracens flanker, also poised for a return in the 36-man group that will be announced on Monday morning.
Tom Pearson and Ben Curry, two uncapped flankers, were also in the running for back-row spots and Elliot Daly could be welcomed back into the fold. Dan Kelly, the Leicester Tigers centre, attended the New Year fitness camp and has been under serious consideration as a midfield option.
England are hopeful that Henry Slade will avoid a ban, and be available to face Scotland on February 4, despite receiving a red card for a high tackle during Exeter Chiefs’ loss to the Bulls on Saturday. Slade’s experience will be useful given how young the rest of the backline could be.
Borthwick has targeted set-piece improvements, a priority that has encouraged Cole’s inclusion, and has appointed Kevin Sinfield to oversee defence. Another aim, with the help of attack coach, Nick Evans, will be to ignite a misfiring attack that only produced 27 tries across 12 matches in 2022, 12 of those coming in victories over Italy and Japan.
Room for improvement
Upon his unveiling at Twickenham last month, Borthwick highlighted the back three and the back row as two areas that would require deep thought. Sources have indicated that Borthwick has held individual conversations with each of the back-row candidates in the build-up to his announcement.
“We have a lot of talent,” Borthwick said a month ago. “There are a couple of areas of the team where we have competition and the outside backs is one of them. I think you [also] look at the back row. If you look around the Premiership, you can all see the quality players in that position in the team.”
Cadan Murley, Ollie Hassell-Collins and Max Malins, all of them in prolific form for their respective clubs this season, could benefit from the exclusions of Nowell and May. Tommy Freeman and Joe Cokanasiga attended the recent get-together as well.
Anthony Watson is nursing a minor leg injury, but Borthwick is known to be fond of Harry Potter, another Leicester wing, and has stationed Freddie Steward out wide in the past.
The versatile Daly, who scored a first-half hat-trick for Saracens against Lyon from full-back on Saturday evening, with Borthwick watching on from the stands, could join the back-three options.
Ben Youngs, in line for a call-up as one of three scrum-halves, admitted on Friday night, after guiding Tigers to victory over Clermont, that he was “completely in the dark” in spite of his familiarity with Borthwick and Sinfield.
“I guess we’ll find out, on Monday,” said the 33-year-old when asked what Borthwick’s England would look like. “It’ll be a team that will be very good at the fundamentals. Wiggy [Richard Wigglesworth, interim head coach of Tigers] is a fantastic coach but one of the reasons is our fundamentals of the game have been driven into us by Steve and Kev.
“Wiggy is able to add that while keeping those bits. You look at all those guys, especially the young lads, and they’ve only known Steve and Kev. Those bits are really drilled into them – that fight, effort.
"Some things go against us but we hang in there – that’s class and that’s come from what they [Borthwick and Sinfield] have done. I expect a team that is very aggressive in defence, with a brilliant set piece, and a team that fights like mad.”