Watch England vs Italy live on Sky Sports Action from 7pm on Friday
Wednesday 4 September 2019 16:56, UK
Selecting Joe Marchant for England's final World Cup warm-up game is down to preparing for potential injuries during the tournament, says Steve Borthwick.
Marchant was named at outside centre for Friday's game against Italy, live on Sky Sports, despite not being named in the 31-man group heading to Japan.
Borthwick says Marchant's selection, as well as that of Charlie Ewels and Matt Kvesic on the bench, means any late injury replacements will have the benefit of time spent with the squad in the lead-up to the tournament.
"It puts us in a very good position should, as history as shown, when we are out in the World Cup and need to call players up, these players have played with us as recently as Friday," Borthwick told Sky Sports.
The inclusion of Marchant sparked whispers that Henry Slade and Jonathan Joseph may be struggling to get to full fitness in time for England's opening match - particularly as Slade has not featured in any of the warm-ups - but Borthwick says the coaching staff are happy with the pair's progress and were not prepared to rush them back.
"Sladey was on this field here yesterday training really well, running up around 100 per cent, so he's getting there," said the former Saracens lock. "He wasn't quite ready for this game, a little bit too early, but he's not far away.
"JJ, he should be in full training tomorrow so again not far away, he's just wasn't quite ready for this game."
Borthwick added that the players selected for this weekend are not necessarily automatic call-ups in the event of injury: "We don't have a standby list, we've got players that train with us and train very well."
Asked whether there were any concerns for centre Manu Tuilagi, who is not part of the matchday 23, Borthwick said each player is evaluated during the week to see if they would benefit from game time or a rest.
"Everyone prepares differently," said Borthwick. "We look at each player individually; minutes they've had, how much we think they need, what they need to do, what's best for them. It's just the decisions we make.
"Billy [Vunipola] has trained really well but he thrives on playing, he loves the contest of the game. He wants to be out there, he wants the ball in his hands. He's playing very well and he's got a smile on his face because of it."
In what Eddie Jones called a "mix and match" selection, natural fetcher Tom Curry starts at blindside in Newcastle and Mark Wilson wears the No 7 jersey, a move Borthwick says is designed to help players adapt to playing in different positions when a game situation requires it - as highlighted when Curry left the field injured in England's game against Wales at Twickenham.
"At the start we had a plan, we had a couple of bangs to players and Tom went off early in that first game which meant we had to adapt our plan," said Borthwick.
"This is part of building that versatility for the different types of game plans we might want to play. We've got different combinations.
"We know Tom is a world-class seven and he played very well at six recently. He's played more at seven than six so it gives him time there.
"Wils has shown he wants to be able to play six, seven and eight for England which, when you come to World Cups, you need that versatility."
Watch England vs Italy live on Sky Sports Action and Main Event from 7pm on Friday
