Ex-England captains Chris Robshaw and Lawrence Dallaglio have both tipped Sam Underhill as the answer to Steve Borthwick’s No 7 conundrum.
The two men who between them played 151 times in the England back row expect head coach Borthwick to pick a big No 6 for the Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin in three weeks’ time, with Leicester Tigers’ Ollie Chessum the likeliest choice if fit.
And that phrase “if fit” is one of the worries for the ideal England line-up, as Borthwick aims to reverse the drift of seven losses in 12 Tests in 2024.
Underhill and Tom Curry have been widely hailed as world class while wearing the No 7 jersey for England, but both have struggled to put a long run of matches together in recent years, due to concussion and other injuries – Curry recently needed stem cell therapy on his hip, and Underhill last weekend re-injured an ankle that had required surgery in the summer.
All things being equal, Robshaw and Dallaglio say Underhill’s defensive prowess is paramount in the context of England facing an Ireland side with immense back row resources, quickly followed by France and Scotland at Twickenham.
Other strong candidates on England’s openside flank include Curry’s twin brother and Sale Sharks teammate Ben – who has been captaining their club this season in arguably the best form of his life – and Saracens’ Ben Earl, plus longer shots in Guy Pepper of Bath and Northampton Saints’ Tom Pearson and Henry Pollock.
Borthwick’s deliberations will of course be dictated by England’s game plan in open play and from the set-pieces of scrum and lineout.
“I think Steve Borthwick will stick with Ben Earl at No 8, and then it is a shootout between Curry and Underhill,” Robshaw tells The i Paper. “It’s a brilliant position for Steve to be in, but also a tough decision.
“Going away to Ireland first, you need to stop them scoring. England at the moment are scoring points, but they conceded 40 to Australia in the autumn and you can’t do that and win games – or you shouldn’t do. Tom Curry gives you a bit more carrying and a bit more in the lineout than Underhill does. But Underhill’s defence is better than anyone in our league. His tackling defence is phenomenal.”
While Tom Curry was battling against injury during the first half of 2024, Underhill topped the Premiership charts for the year in dominant tackles – ahead of Ben Curry, Richard Capstick of Exeter Chiefs, Pearson and Earl – and he started all eight England Tests in the Six Nations and summer tour.
Then Curry got the nod for the opening autumn matches with New Zealand and Australia in November, before he missed the South Africa loss with concussion.
That gave Underhill a way back in, and ultimately he and Curry were picked together with regular No 8 Earl for the easy win over Japan – only for Underhill to limp off after 14 minutes.
The 28-year-old Underhill has 40 caps, while Curry has 56 at the age of 26, with both having made their debuts in 2017.
Now Dallaglio tells The i Paper he wants Tom Willis to start at No 8 in Dublin for what would be only a second cap for the Saracens man.
“I also see him as a future England captain,” Dallaglio says of Willis. “He’s the best forward in the Premiership by some distance; there is a touch of [former New Zealand skipper and No 8] Kieran Read about him.”
As for the seven role, Dallaglio says: “England need size in the team. I’d pick Tom Willis at eight, Sam Underhill at seven and Ollie Chessum at six. That’s not to say Ben Earl and whoever else is on the bench would not have significant impact on the game. And Ben Curry is right in there, playing exceptionally well, and people forget he was originally picked for England before his brother.”
Robshaw and Dallaglio will be pundits for Premier Sports on the Champions Cup this weekend, with Bath, Sale, Leicester, Harlequins, Saracens and Northampton involved in tough, pivotal pool matches. Then Borthwick names his England Six Nations squad on Tuesday.
“Going away from home to a hostile environment, getting Chessum back would be a big positive,” Dallaglio says. “It’s been difficult to replace Courtney Lawes, and when England had Billy Vunipola [at No 8] and Underhill and Curry, they were lacking an additional lineout forward.
“Chandler Cunningham-South [of Harlequins] has been given that opportunity, but wasn’t able to quite grasp it – he does big things, but you need to do more than that: you need to do things that affect the outcome of the game.
“When I see people like Ben Curry week to week, Sam Underhill when he gets to play, Tom Willis without a doubt, Ben Earl – they actually do things that affect the outcome of the game, and that’s the most important thing.”
Robshaw thinks this summer’s tour to Argentina and the USA will be Pollock’s time. And Dallaglio clearly sees something of himself in the Saint who turns 20 next week: “It’s nice to have a back row forward with a bit of swagger and a bit of chat and a bit of self-belief.”
It’s wonderful to discuss with the former captains how they see the No 7 role, with the days long gone of that player being a team’s solitary jackal threat, or France’s Serge Betsen detailed to chase down England’s fly-half Jonny Wilkinson.
So are there still any specialisms to the position?
“There are running lines from the back of the lineout you need to learn, though you’ll often see a prop there now,” says Robshaw. “We have seen Earl and Josh Bayliss, or Tom Guest in my day, pop up in the centre or on the wing. But do they really know the running lines? I don’t think so.”
Dallaglio says: “If you are on the open side of the scrum you have got to know what you’re doing, not over-chasing and so on.”
Robshaw was once described by then England coach Eddie Jones as “a six and a half”, but he is clear in how he measured his contribution as an openside.
“Have an impact,” Robshaw says. “And that is not necessarily a number thing – it’s the ability to work hard off the ball and, for me, always the unseen work. Like, when you don’t have the ball, how hard are you working to get back into position, to help others. On a kick-chase, not just going into a guard position, but working harder to go outside the heavier players.
“Every conflict you’re in, try and be dominant. You won’t dominate every tackle, but fight and make it hard for the carrier to get the ball down, or to get it back. Everyone sees the final result – a turnover or not – but when you’re in the game, you see whether the ball has been slowed down a little bit, and the knock-on effect of that for the rest of the team.”
Lawrence Dallaglio and Chris Robshaw are part of the Premier Sports team bringing UK & Ireland rugby fans every game live in the Champions Cup with 80 live matches this season across both EPCR tournaments – visit www.premiersports.tv to sign-up.
