Marcus Smith has been entrusted with the fly-half duties for England’s Six Nations conflict with France after Steve Borthwick made the bombshell determination to drop captain Owen Farrell.
Farrell has been demoted to the bench for the primary time since 2015 for Saturday’s Twickenham showdown with the grand slam champions.
Ellis Genge is called captain for the primary time rather than Farrell however there aren’t any additional adjustments to the beginning XV that topped Wales in spherical three.
“The gamers chosen to face our guests are once more a mirrored image of what I see to be the correct stability of personnel for the problem we face on this sport,” England head coach Borthwick mentioned.
“Marcus Smith begins at fly-half and Dave Ribbans returns to the match-day 23. Congratulations to Ellis Genge who will captain the facet for the primary time.”
Smith began the event within the 10 jersey in opposition to Scotland however then needed to accept cameo roles off the bench in opposition to Italy and Wales, together with his sport time in Cardiff restricted to only 14 seconds.
The 24-year-old was launched to play for Harlequins final weekend and having delivered an aesthetic man of the match show in opposition to Exeter, now finds himself given the duty of launching England’s backline.
Farrell’s kind to this point within the Six Nations has been cheap sufficient, however his success ratio off the kicking tee reads an unacceptable 47 p.c.
Nonetheless, Borthwick was nonetheless anticipated to maintain religion with England’s talisman and has as soon as once more proven his ruthless streak by freezing him out of the beginning XV.
Farrell follows Manu Tuilagi and Ben Youngs among the many large names jettisoned by Borthwick since he changed Eddie Jones as head coach in December.
