Marcus Smith will kick for goal against Scotland despite a pair of misses in the second half of England’s 26-25 victory over France. Steve Borthwick, who has made a single change to his starting line-up for the Six Nations encounter on Saturday, with Ollie Chessum replacing George Martin at lock, also confirmed the tee duties on Tuesday afternoon. Marcus Smith spurned five points with two hooked strikes, which led to Fin Smith assuming the responsibilities and landing two crucial conversions to secure a stirring win.
However, it will be the Harlequin, starting at full-back once again, who will return to that role as England strive to halt their unwanted streak of four consecutive Calcutta Cup defeats. “He is a world-class goal-kicker,” Borthwick said of Marcus Smith, the England head coach stating that the decision was made in the immediate aftermath of Le Crunch. “We all know that, so it’s pretty simple.”.
England are preparing for Finn Russell, their nemesis in recent years, to be passed fit to orchestrate matters for Scotland at fly-half. That would be a coup for Gregor Townsend and a stern challenge for Marcus Smith and the rest of England’s back three. “Scotland are very smart in the way they play and they have a 10 in Finn Russell who many people say is arguably the best fly-half in the world at the moment,” Borthwick added.
“He has a very varied kicking game and a really attacking kicking game and we have to be very sharp to make sure that space is covered, because he can find it.”. Borthwick will urge Marcus Smith to trust his attacking instincts. “Listen, Marcus is a game-changer,” he said. “Marcus is a player with incredible ability. Sometimes, the opposition focus very much on him. Sometimes, that creates space for others. Sometimes, there will be a window for him to find.
“With Fin Smith and Marcus Smith, we have two ball-players, two people who see space in the front line and in the back-field, and that’s going to be very important this weekend.”. It will be Chessum’s first Test start for 11 months, since he featured against France at blindside flanker in the last match of the 2024 Six Nations in Lyon. His last England start at lock was against Scotland in last season’s Calcutta Cup encounter at Murrayfield, which the hosts won 30-21.
Since then, the 24-year-old has missed the summer tour of Japan and New Zealand to undergo shoulder and thumb surgery before his autumn internationals were wiped out by a freak knee injury that required another operation. Martin had been moved to a rehabilitation list last week, yet has been deemed fit enough to be handed a place on a bench that features five other forwards in Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, Chandler Cunningham-South and Ben Curry.
Otherwise, Borthwick’s match-day 23 is unchanged. Marcus Smith is retained at full-back with Fin Smith at fly-half and a back row of Tom Curry, Ben Earl and Tom Willis will improve a record of one triumph over Scotland in seven meetings stretching back to 2018. There remains a strong Northampton Saints accent to the back line as Ollie Sleightholme and Tommy Freeman stay on the wings and Alex Mitchell continues at scrum-half.
Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence will extend their run of consecutive starts as a midfield partnership to 13. Harry Randall and Elliot Daly, the latter having scored England’s match-winning try against France in round two, will cover the back line. George, who also made a significant impact as Borthwick’s charges snatched Le Crunch on the back of late line-out accuracy, is poised for a 99th England cap on Saturday.
Thursday also brought the news that England will take on Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina on consecutive weekends this November. Thanks for following with us. Keep an eye on the Telegraph website for further news and analysis as we build up to round three on Saturday. The first thing is the consistency across the 23, which is important as we build togetherness. Ollie Chessum has been building really well and has got better and better each week. We saw his impact off the bench in the France Test.
George Martin did not train fully last week but he is fully fit. You need to build an attack now, you don’t build one a year out from a World Cup. The look of the team is very different now. At Murrayfield 12 months ago, there are changes from that. Joe Marler, Dan Cole and Danny Care played. Ethan Roots and Sam Underhill were in the back row - and it’s very different now. We’re aware of the recent record against Scotland. They are smart and well coached and we need to make sure we play well this weekend.
