The season of mist and gentle fruitfulness is abominable. This autumn, there is no room for artistic license or British fragility. Instead, we need to see Steve Borthwick’s side be ruthless over the next four weeks and continue their seven-game winning streak.
Above all, we need clarity because the next Rugby World Cup is just two years away. No more smokescreens and false dawns, the time has come for England to affirm her authority.
Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina will take part in the Autumn Nations Series. England should aim for four out of four. This is achievable with a talented group of players, a growing coaching staff with expertise, and all of this on home soil.
First, let me summarize. England go into these four games off the back of an impressive 2025 campaign so far. The Six Nations started with a five-point defeat against Ireland, but they backed that up with a last-minute one-point win over France, a one-point win over Scotland, a comfortable win over Italy and a thorough defeat of Wales.
The 13-team British & Irish Lions tour won back-to-back tests in Argentina and capped off their three-game summer with a lightning-fast 40-5 victory over the Americans. It is against this backdrop that England will welcome the Wallabies to Twickenham this weekend.
“We want to see stability from England,” World Cup-winning second-rower Ben Kay told ESPN.
“To do that, you need precision. You watch a lot of England’s performances and the criticism is why Steve Borthwick – who used to be Eddie Jones – is trying to get them to play like that. And a lot of times they’re not trying to play like that, they’re just struggling to find their level of ability. So they need to get into the flow and find their rhythm quickly.”
England went into the game with their team in charge earlier this week, a feature that is increasingly common in Steve Borthwick’s plans. They had limited reinforcement as a group in the run up to this match against Australia, with the RFU slotting in an extra Test outside the regular international window to maximize revenue at the expense of Borthwick having a pre-series training camp.
“Australia have had a summer together. Since England last played Wales, Australia has had a Lions tour and a Rugby Championship, so there’s that fluidity,” said TNT pundit Kaye during the series.
“That is the challenge facing England.”
Ahead of the game against the Wallabies, Borthwick will have to juggle match fitness, form and short- and long-term plans. They need to win now, but they also need to improve their intimacy for the 2027 World Cup. The Lions’ touring contingent returned to play in stages this season.
Tom Curry hasn’t even played for Sale this season after undergoing wrist surgery in the summer after the Lions trip, but he was on the bench on Saturday. But a look at the squad for Saturday’s match shows Borthwick are starting to put the basic building blocks in place for a global gathering in two years’ time.
First is the eye-catching call to put Tommy Freeman under center. The position, where he started for England in a 68-14 win against Wales last March, not only shows continuity in his central pairing with Northampton Saints team-mate Fraser Dingwall, but is also the template for a World Cup dual role.
The move for Freeman, who started all three of the Lions’ Test games on the wing, will give Borthwick space to use Immanuel Fay-Waboso and Tom Roebuck on the wing, with Freddie Steward at full-back. 19-year-old Saracens wonder player Noah Caruori could get his chance this autumn, but not yet. You can imagine he would have been invaluable in camp this week, replicating Joseph Suaari’s incredible ability under the high ball.
The appointment of George Ford as fly-half rewards his impressive form and leadership over the summer with England, earning him cap number 100 against Pumas on 5 July, and solidifies Saints’ presence in the middle of the pitch in combination with Alex Mitchell.
Finn Smith and Ben Spencer are on the bench, but that means no Marcus Smith or Ollie Lawrence. Of the two, Lawrence is the less fortunate. And for Marcus Smith, it’s a victim of Borthwick, who opted for a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench.
Marcus Smith is stuck in the versatile no-man’s land that Borthwick prefers as a full-back, playing rugby as a number 10 for Quins. As for Lawrence, he has performed well since returning from his Achilles injury, but he must break the Saints’ dominance. Perhaps that will be helped by England’s new backs coach, former Bath guru Lee Blackett.
The much admired Brackett was sent to England for a summer tour with Sale’s defense coach Byron McGuigan. Since then, Brackett has been brought on full-time and McGuigan has split the workload. Not a penny was given to Bass and Sale’s thoughts. They lent two of their prized assets to the big dogs, helping the greater good, only to have them taken away from them.
At forward, Borthwick prioritizes pace in the second and back rows. Kay feels only the injured George Martin could have broken up England’s second-row partnership of Maro Itoje and Olly Chetham, but the selection of Guy Pepper at blindside, on his fourth cap, will see Sam With Underhill and Ben Earl alongside them, England are running a surprisingly athletic group, with players who will be looking for jacking and speed at the breakdown to negate the threat of the tenacious Wallabies.
Having the Lions’ front three on the bench is England’s version of Bocke’s ‘bomb squad’, although all three are expected to return to the starting lineup against the All Blacks in two weeks’ time.
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There are always caveats and asterisks with these openers. In England’s case, they will point out that they have limited training time. In what is a travesty of the international calendar and regulations, Australia are without four of their best players in Will Skelton, Len Ikitau, Tom Hooper and James O’Connor.
It would be great to have a full-strength Wallabies team that shows why they beat the Boks in Johannesburg and why they are bubbling so well under Joe Schmidt (and the incoming Les Kiss).
“This weekend will be tough. Australia are a great team and England have to get up to speed quickly, even without those four players,” Kay said. “That will be the challenge. I think either Argentina or the All Blacks could give them problems. But England will definitely come to camp and say we are aiming for four wins and four losses.”
The next five weekends will serve as a reminder of the upcoming World Cup. Wales vs. South Africa on November 29th will be the final match in this block. With the need to secure ranking points and seeding ahead of the World Cup draw on December 3, each country will do everything in its power to solidify the most advantageous group line-up possible.
In the end, it comes back to the most basic and most difficult question in sports: winning.
England will play four sold-out games with crowds hoping for further signs of improvement and, above all, evidence of their authority.