England’s vast back-row pool and the difficult calls Steve Borthwick must make

England’s vast player pool has always been a double-edged sword and remains so even with 10 Premiership clubs.

Head coaches are never going to please everybody, especially when they opt to build cohesion with stability – as Steve Borthwick has done with his latest squad. Despite previous bosses being criticised for pick-and-flick approaches to selection, it is still far sexier to wonder how a new face could freshen things up.

The back row is an eternally hot topic and one that encourages us to ponder new shiny things, as the opening weeks of the domestic campaign have accentuated. Just for fun, a form trio from the first five rounds might look like this:

• 6. Jack Kenningham

• 8. Tom Willis

• 7. Guy Pepper

Or this:

• 6. Ted Hill

• 8. Fitz Harding

• 7. Olly Cracknell

Each of these six individuals have excelled in different ways. Pepper, who earned lofty comparisons with Richie McCaw from Bath boss Johann van Graan, seems a special prospect. Just 21, he already exudes craft and class in the contact area, manipulating his body and using deceptive power to disrupt opponents.

Kenningham, mercifully fit again following a horrible injury run, is resourceful and relentless. Cracknell and Willis win collisions constantly. Hill is a supreme athlete honing an ability to cover lock. And Harding cuts such clever angles.

Shrewd readers will have clocked that none of these players are in Borthwick’s latest England squad. That is not to denigrate those to have made it, many of whom are gearing up nicely for an important autumn.

Rather, this demonstrates the variety of options available to Borthwick and the difficult calls he must make. The England A side facing Australia next month cannot fail to have a seriously exciting back row.

As for the front-line combination, there might be a clue in the statement performance of Borthwick’s England tenure to date; a stirring win over Ireland in March. And in most back rows, counting back from No 6 is informative. Blindside flankers tend to balance the pack and betray a coach’s priorities.

Ollie Chessum was there against Ireland seven months ago. Complementing a second-row partnership of Maro Itoje and George Martin, he reinforced the line-out with an additional elite jumper and did not compromise England’s mobility.

Starting three locks also allowed Borthwick to load both Chandler Cunningham-South and Alex Dombrandt on to the bench without needing to risk a six-two split of forwards. A late power surge, capped by Marcus Smith’s dropped goal, sealed the win.

Chessum retained his place the following week in France – another intrepid team performance, without the positive result – before Cunningham-South wore six for three consecutive Tests over the summer. The plan has been to add line-out jumping to the latter’s obvious X-factor: explosive carrying.

With his rangy blindsides, Borthwick has teamed up two players of a similar profile in Sam Underhill and Ben Earl. Underhill, often the first to be overlooked by those picking fantasy line-ups, deserves credit for expanding his game. He appears more comfortable than ever on the ball and has been more prominent with breakdown disruption and as a line-out jumper.

Borthwick retaining Dombrandt at the expense of Willis was perhaps his most contentious call in the back row. While Earl has been generally admirable, England were not as secure from first-phase scenarios as they would have liked in New Zealand.

Willis, a heftier and more classical No 8, might have remedied that. But Dombrandt was involved against Ireland. Having toured earlier this year, he does offer a degree of continuity and impressed in a loss to Bath on Saturday evening. Harlequins sent him running towards the outside channel, which brought about an early try.

Cunningham-South, just about as bold a bolter as there could have been last season, does cover No 8 as well. It might be that Borthwick feels as though having him or Chessum in a back row with Willis would not have enough speed.

Elsewhere, Tom and Ben Curry have returned to the set-up – effectively replacing Tom Pearson and Greg Fisilau, with Nick Isiekwe taking over from Ethan Roots – after missing the early October training camp. At their best, the twins will enhance England’s jackal threat. Tom’s pedigree and versatility make him worth persevering with, despite uncertain cameos against the All Blacks, and Ben is rarely bettered in the Premiership – notwithstanding Sale Sharks’ capitulation in Northampton on Friday night.

Squeezing as many of these players as possible into a match-day 23 is an intriguing task. Joe El-Abd, the new defence coach, can double up as another back-row mentor alongside Richard Hill. Borthwick’s respect for the line-out is obvious with the inclusion of Charlie Ewels and Isiekwe, as well as Chessum’s potential deployment in the back row. On the back of surgery over the close season, Chessum has looked imposing for Leicester Tigers. Michael Cheika naming him as captain only reinforced his growing reputation as a leader.

Adaptable backs capable of shifting positions – Marcus Smith, George Furbank, Tommy Freeman, Luke Northmore, Henry Slade and Elliot Daly – as well as Earl’s shift at centre against Japan, may finally convince Borthwick to field a six-two. That would seem the most obvious way to leverage what should now be an area of strength across England, with the Premiership staging back-row battles every weekend.

But these domestic dust-ups are worth little to Borthwick unless his preferred combinations are good enough to go toe-to-toe with New Zealand and South Africa. That will be the truest assessment of his selection.