"Freddie Steward returns" - 5 Talking Points: Steve Borthwick names England squad to play South Africa

Freddie Steward, Sam Underhill, Jack van Poortvliet and Tom Roebuck have all been named for their first taste of action this November, after the quartet all missed the opening two defeats at the Allianz Stadium. Steward gets the nod to start at fullback, with Underhill and van Poortvleit taking up the seven and nine shirts respectively. Roebuck rounds off the new coming replacements in the 23 jersey, for what would be the Sale man's only second England cap.

15. Freddie Steward 14. Tommy Freeman 13. Ollie Lawrence 12. Henry Slade 11. Ollie Sleightholme 10. Marcus Smith 9. Jack van Poortvliet 1. Ellis Genge 2. Jamie George 3. Will Stuart 4. Maro Itoje 5. George Martin 6. Chandler Cunningham-South 7. Sam Underhill 8. Ben Earl

Replacements: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie 17. Fin Baxter 18. Dan Cole 19. Nick Isiekwe 20. Alex Dombrandt 21. Harry Randall 22. George Ford 23. Tom Roebuck

One of the key changes to Steve Borthwick's squad to face South Africa, is the return of Freddie Steward to the England squad. Steward is set for his first taste of action of the Autumn, in what will be his first England appearence since the second Summer Test against the All Blacks down in Auckland's Eden Park.

There's no mistaking that Steward has been called upon to deal with the expected peppering of kicks from the Springboks, and utilise his power s England's best option under the high ball. There is no place in the squad for George Furbank this week, with Borthwick explaining how the Northampton Saints man has earned some time on the sidelines after a physical few weeks.

STEVE BORTHWICK: "Fred being England's full-back for such a long time, playing a good number of Tests in a row, and then not to be selected, had the second test in New Zealand but then was not selected at the start here (the autumn). His training has been exceptional. His attitude has been brilliant and the team that kicks more contestable kicks than anybody in the world is South Africa.

"Everything shows they're head and shoulders above everybody in terms of the number of times they kick contestable.We can talk further about the law implications but we don't expect South Africa to kick more contestable kicks than, they're already the most in the world. Fred's clearly got a super strength there so that has a factor to it. I think Ferbs (George Furbank) has done really well in these first couple of games. He took a couple of bangs last weekend and I felt it was time to take a change for this one."

Leicester Tigers scrum half Jack van Poortvleit will start this weekend for England, in what has been a long time coming for the halfback. JVP was the nailed on starter for England ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, but sustained a horror ankle injury in a pre-World Cup summer Test against Wales. This opened the door for Alex Mitchell to stake his claim to the starting nine jersey, with his grip only relenting due to an enforced break following a neck injury.

Van Poortvleit's England return will be his first international Test since his ankle break, as he has been given the nod to start ahead of Ben Spencer and Harry Randall. There is no place for Spencer in the match day 23, with van Poortvleit leap-frogging Randall to the starting shirt, as the Bristol Bears halfback retains the seat on the bench. Borthwick has been delighted with van Poortvliet's effort in training and bestowed him the honour of starting against the Spingboks this Saturday.

STEVE BORTHWICK: "JVP he's done really well. After the blow he took prior to the 2023 World Cup and then the time-out of the game and then to come back last season when he had a couple of niggles in the latter part of last season. Never quite saw him at 100 per cent and I think this season he's been terrific. In the first couple weeks training here he is just grown and grown. I'm seeing his speed right back to the very best it was. So I'm excited to see him go on Saturday."

"Both guys (Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso) are recovering super well. Tom's been coming into here each day and based himself locally and coming into here each day to continue his recovery and has been excellent. He's contributed to our preparations this week. Manny returned to Exeter for his recovery and I expect both guys to be... all being well and all things been ticked off by the medics and according to their returns play, I I'd expect both guys to be in our squad at the start of next week."

Another change of personnel sees the return of Sam Underhill to the England squad, with the Bath bruiser ready to leave some Springboks the black and blue of his Premiership club's kit. Underhill's exclusion from the England squad has been a real head-scratcher of a decision so far this Autumn, with Borthwick instead opting for the likes of Tom Curry, Alex Dombrandt, Ben Curry and Chandler Cunningham-South ahead of him in the back-row ranks.

Underhill took up the mantle as England's first choice flanker of the 2024 Six Nations and subsequent Summer tour of Japan and New Zealand, with Borthwick explaining how the Bath man was 'frustrated' to have been left out of the All Blacks and Wallabies Autumn Tests. Underhill will get his shot this Saturday following Tom Curry's head injury enforced break, after the Sale Sharks man was knocked unconscious by Rob Valentini last Saturday against Australia.

STEVE BORTHWICK: "So, Sam quite justifiably has been really disappointed not to have been selected in the first couple of games. You see he's a guy who started through the Six Nations, through the summer series in Japan, New Zealand and played really well and we had a number of conversations around.. and he expressed how disappointed and frustrated he was not to get the opportunity and he's channeled that into his training now.

"He looks fit and sharp as we discussed, he had the ankle injury which had limited his game time and playing time prior to the start of the series. Right now I see a guy who's really fit, very, very sharp and eager to go, we know how physical he plays the game and we're playing against the team that play the game in a very physical manner."

There has also been plenty of discussion within recent weeks about the new refereeing crackdown on 'escorting', with the kicking frequency only expected to increase in the eyes of Steve Borthwick. The former lock does not want rugby union to go the way of 'Aussie Rules', as the sport from down under rightfully lives up to it's nickname of 'footie', due to an abundance of kicks from hand.

The new escorting rule sees the match officials take an increased scrutiny, towards any players attempting to block those chasing down the high kicks. This puts an increased onus on retaining successful kick return, with Borthwick expecting the Springboks to utilise this tactic at the Allianz this Saturday.

STEVE BORTHWICK: "It's a pretty small sample size so far, but what we're seeing is a great increase in the number of kicks, increase in the number of contestable kicks, an increase in the number of scrums and increase in the number of loose balls, unstructured balls. So the source of possession is changing and it's only going to increase in that sense. I think there's going to be more kicking.

"As I said, the number of kicks South Africa kick which are contestable I expect is very high I expect. That was mostly other than the Scotland game with the prior law implications, so I only expect that to increase. The number of scrums is increasing. That's what we're seeing so far. I'd expect that to continue."

"Freddie (Steward) is always a valuable player. I see every one of the players as being valuable. I think Freddie has strengths, as does Tommy Freeman, and you see it with Manny Feyi-Waboso in the New Zealand game – two balls down that right hand side, catching clean and bringing them down.

"That contestable kicking game means that anyone who has strengths in that area is going to be very important in this game. But I don’t think anyone wants it to turn into Aussie rules, do they? As you start looking at the numbers of contested kicks, loose balls, number of kicks – you don’t want to turn rugby union into Aussie rules. I thought our game was in pretty good shape. There has been a fundamental change here.

"To be clear, it is every coach and every team’s job to adapt fast. Decision made. We’ve got to adapt fast to it. This is our third game under it. You can certainly see how athletic players who can get high in the air bring another asset to your team.”

Keeping his focus upon the opposition, Borthwick gave his thoughts on the South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus. Borthwick admitted to not closing the door on unleashing his own 7-1 bomb squad in the foreseeable future, and described Erasmus' work in taking the Springboks to back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles as nothing short of 'phenomenal.'

Also, Borthwick explained how he remains in contact with his former defence coach Felix Jones, with the Irishman providing external surveillance with analytical scouting packages on the Springboks. Jones' work was so thorough, that he had to fly in to London and hand deliver the USB stick himself.

STEVE BORTHWICK: “If you have the versatility, the amount of players, all those things…I'll comment on the job he's done and is doing in South Africa, I think it's phenomenal. You see they're a team that has evolved, but has also kept a real core strength to their game. You see a squad that has made 12 changes since the game last weekend.

"So they've built a squad that has got enormous depth and breadth to it, incredible quality. Twelve changes, nearly 1,200 caps this weekend, I think someone just told me, which is a pretty phenomenal position to be in. What he's done since 2018, through the 2019 World Cup, through the 2023 World Cup, and now onwards, he's continued to build a really good programme there. He's clearly used that time really well to evolve the team."

"So Felix as in all weeks is providing, as I outlined prior to the start of the series, his incredibly detailed and thorough analysis of opposition and review of our performances, and elements of our training, I asked him to review. He has been in very close contact with us, with Joe El-Abd, with our analyst Joe Lewis, who he worked across with."

"The packages Felix is producing, as is typically Felix, very, very thorough. One of the initial packages, it was so big to transfer it electronically from Dublin, Felix had to fly over and give the hard drive, there was that much material involved in this. So there's lots of contact there.