England host Ireland at Twickenham in Round 4 on Saturday, March 9 (4.45pm kick-off); Steve Borthwick hopes Marcus Smith can feature, with Alex Mitchell expected to return before the end of the Six Nations
Tuesday 27 February 2024 08:10, UK
England head coach Steve Borthwick hopes fly-half Marcus Smith could be fit to return to action in the Six Nations clash against Ireland at Twickenham.
Harlequins star Smith has sat out all three of England's games so far with a calf problem suffered on a pre-tournament training camp.
Borthwick also feels Northampton scrum-half Alex Mitchell could be back in action before the end of the Six Nations, having missed the defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield with a knee issue.
"I am very hopeful that Marcus will be available for selection for this latter part of the tournament," Borthwick said.
"We have got positive news on Alex Mitchell's injury, we are hopeful he will feature in the latter part of this tournament - whether that's the next game, we are not sure, but we are hopeful he will be available as well."
Following Saturday's 30-21 Calcutta Cup loss in Edinburgh, the England squad are set to regroup in York for training.
Borthwick is expecting a response as the squad prepare to head back to Twickenham in the build-up to the showdown with Grand Slam contenders Ireland on March 9.
He said: "What's going to be interesting to me and what I want when we debrief the players, is that after the first 20 minutes on Saturday - why did we go and play in a manner that was not the way we had played the first 20?
"What changed? What in the thought processes altered to try and do something different? I will only be able to understand that fully once we have talked to the players and listened to them about how it was on the grass."
Jamie George conceded England were "not good enough" in their Calcutta Cup defeat but the captain remained adamant they were heading in the right direction overall under Borthwick.
"If you look at our run of form over the last nine/10 games, we've won a lot of them," George said. "If you look at the more global picture of where we are as a team and how we are progressing as a team, if you take a step back and look at it as a whole, there are a lot of positive signs.
"Do we need to get better? Absolutely. Are we doing everything we can to do that? Yes."
George added: "The foundations are good but as players, we need to execute the game plan better. We knew it would be difficult coming up here, with the history that goes into the game, but we weren't good enough.
"One thing that hopefully the fans saw in the first 20 minutes of the game is a blueprint for how we want to play as a team. Now it's about our ability to do it for 80 minutes. There will be things that we look back on and go, 'that's what English rugby needs to be about, that's what this team needs to be about going forward'.
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