Steve Borthwick has delivered an early World Cup statement by installing Owen Farrell as England’s captain for the September tournament in France.
Head coach Borthwick has kept faith with Saracens star Farrell as the England leader, with prop Ellis Genge and back-five forward Courtney Lawes named as vice-captains.
Borthwick today named a 41-man training squad with all players available for the first time, but will not name the eventual 33-man World Cup squad until early August.
So taking the step of cementing Farrell as squad captain now sends a clear statement of intent on England’s plans for the autumn tournament.
Borthwick revealed he finalised his decision on England’s captaincy in a two-hour walk around Harpenden with Farrell 10 days ago.
“I’m excited to announce the England Rugby World Cup squad will be captained by Owen Farrell, and the vice captains will be Ellis Genge and Courtney Lawes,” said Borthwick. “I think we’ve got some great leaders in the team, all of them are fantastic players who have enormous respect.
“I went and met Owen about 10 days ago, and we spent nearly two hours walking around fields outside Harpenden, farmers’ fields, talking everything we wanted to do with this team, everything we wanted to do with this program and what we wanted to achieve.
“His passion is fantastic, he’s a fantastic leader and the players have enormous respect for him.”
Lions stalwart Farrell drove a total attacking rebrand as Saracens powered to this term’s Premiership title, spurring the Men In Black on to expand their front-foot game.
Farrell has battled with Harlequins’ Marcus Smith for the fly-half berth, with the England skipper also able to feature at inside centre. Farrell’s best position remains fly-half however, and his best rugby clearly comes in the No 10 shirt.
And Borthwick is expected to be minded to keep Farrell as the backline leader and from the fly-half role. The England boss admitted that his long conversation with Farrell also revolved around styles.
“A big part of the conversation is about how we’re going to play,” said Borthwick. “One of the things we have to recognise here is that this has not been a four-year cycle of building the gameplan and the way you’re going to play. And that informs a lot of decisions.
“The coaching team came together three weeks ago, the squad will come together on Sunday night to start training on Monday. So we need to make sure we have the foundation of the game and then tactical flexibility on top of that.
“I’m very confident when we arrive in France there will be some things the opposition won’t expect from us.”
Zach Mercer and Alex Mitchell were the surprise omissions from England’s 41-man training squad named on Friday.
Montpellier’s Gloucester-bound No 8 Mercer had been hotly tipped to push all the way for a World Cup shot, but has instead been jettisoned at an early stage.
Alex Mitchell has lost out to Harlequins veteran Danny Care meanwhile, with Ben Youngs and Jack Van Poortvliet the other scrum-halves.
