England set to drop Ford, start Smith at fullback in Fiji quarterfinal

England coach Steve Borthwick looks set to make radical changes for Sunday's World Cup quarterfinal against Fiji by dropping George Ford and starting Marcus Smith at fullback, strengthening his midfield defence and injecting some energy into the attack.

Borthwick names his team on Friday but British media said on Thursday that Ford, man of the match in the first two games when Owen Farrell was suspended, will be jettisoned, with the captain reclaiming the flyhalf berth.

Smith, a flyhalf for Harlequins, has looked England's most dangerous player in France, either off the bench or when he started against Chile and, after a poor attacking display against Samoa last weekend, it appears that Borthwick has decided to give him another start.

That would be tough on Freddie Steward, one of England's most consistent performers in recent years and who started 28 successive tests until being rested against Chile.

However, while his defence and aerial skills are superior to Smith's, Steward has shown little in attack — though he is far from alone there.

Such a shuffle means that Borthwick can play two specialist centres. Manu Tuilagi looks certain to be one of them, with Joe Marchant and Elliot Daly, who tops England's chart for “dominant tackles”, probably vying for the other in a beefed-up midfield defence against the marauding Fijians.

Defence generally has not been the issue for England as they racked up four wins in a row. Before the Samoa game they had the best defence in the tournament and had conceded only one try.

England were somewhat exposed by Samoa's hard running lines and accurate passing as they scraped an 18-17 win in their final pool match but, as Borthwick said after the game, that should have been a useful dry run for facing Fiji.

England's attack, however, has been limited to say the least. Of the eight quarterfinalists, they average the most kicks in play — 33.8 per match — and have kicked away more possession that anyone else at 68%.

England have made the second-fewest carries (108.8) for the second-fewest metres (461.3), they rank sixth for defenders beaten (22.5) and last for offloads (5.8).

Henry Arundell has most linebreaks in the team but his six all came in one game — the 71-0 thrashing of Chile when he scored five tries.

Other than that match, England's wingers have been starved of opportunities and an indication of the team's reluctance to get the ball wide is that only half of their rucks take place more than 10 metres from the previous one — again last of the eight teams left — and they have the second-slowest ruck speed.

Against Fiji in particular, that approach is not likely to change. The last thing Borthwick will want is to get sucked into an open, running Sevens-style match served up last Sunday when Portugal edged the Fijians 24-23.

The islanders have the lowest line-out success of the quarterfinalists and former lock Borthwick, “a line-out pig” according to hooker Jamie George, will have plans-a-plenty for taking advantage of that. 

Reuters