Steve Borthwick has placed a high emphasis on bolstering specific positions, making it his foremost goal as he commenced preparations for the Six Nations well in advance of his England players receiving their World Cup bronze medals.
“I’ve already started looking forward to the Six Nations. The planning is in the early stages and already started in my mind,” Borthwick said.
“Naturally at the end of World Cups there are always some players that decide their time as a current England player will come to an end, but the age profile of the squad is strong.
“If you look at the semi-finals last week we had seven players who were 25 or under – more than any other team in the semi-finals.
“And there are a number of exciting young players that didn’t make the 33-man squad but who were part of the preparations over the summer.
“We know that the distribution positionally of those players isn’t necessarily even. We know there are some areas where we’re a bit thinner than others.
“I need to make sure we’re doing some work and finding some depth in those keys positions.
“That’s going to be part of my project over the next period of time along with my coaches.”
Respected rugby scribe Hugh Godwin has looked ahead to the Six Nations, picking his England XV which includes a new captain.
England Six Nations XV:
- 15 Freddie Steward
- 14 Anthony Watson
- 13 Ollie Lawrence
- 12 Dan Kelly
- 11 Henry Arundell
- 10 Marcus Smith
- 9 Alex Mitchell
- 1 Ellis Genge
- 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie
- 3 Joe Heyes
- 4 Maro Itoje (capt)
- 5 Ollie Chessum
- 6 George Martin
- 7 Ben Earl
- 8 Tom Willis
Replacements: Theo Dan, Val Rapava Ruskin, Fin Baxter, Jonny Hill, Alfie Barbeary, Raffi Quirke, Fin Smith, Elliot Daly.
Worst Rugby World Cup XV
Head coach: Eddie Jones
15. Marius Simionescu (Romania)
14. Jonny May (England)
13. Huw Jones (Scotland)
12. Samu Kerevi (Australia)
11. Ben Lam (Samoa)