England head coach Steve Borthwick has offered optimistic harm updates on the again three duo of Tom Roebuck and Freddie Steward, who each missed England’s 38-18 victory over Fiji on Saturday at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.
Marcus Smith took over at full-back towards Fiji, with Tommy Freeman shifting to the wing to fill the void left by Roebuck. Each Freeman and fellow wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso seemed to be struggling at levels, nevertheless, towards a Fiji facet that produced loads of shuddering hits in defence.
Whereas Borthwick didn’t have any medical report after the match, he steered England had come away unscathed towards Mick Byrne’s facet forward of an attractive assembly with the All Blacks subsequent week.
“I don’t have a medical report as but, however nothing stands out proper now from the data I’ve,” Borthwick mentioned.
The pinnacle coach additionally appeared assured that he would have each Steward and Roebuck accessible for choice subsequent week towards the world quantity two, New Zealand, after the full-back missed the match with a hand harm and the wing sustained an ankle downside in coaching.
“Hopefully, Tom Roebuck will be back fit this week,” he added. “Hopefully, he will be available for selection, we’ll find out early in the week.
“Fred trained at the end of the week and will be fit and available for selection next week.”
The clash with the All Blacks looks as though it will be the defining fixture of England’s Quilter Nations Series and a match where they will be looking to exact revenge after three narrow losses to them last season.
Stand-in skipper Ellis Genge regarded forward to that match, predicting a “battle of attrition” towards Scott Robertson’s facet.
“Can’t wait, love taking part in towards the perfect on this planet,” the prop mentioned. “Clearly, will probably be a battle of attrition. As years have passed by, they’ve been identified for chucking the ball about, however they’ve obtained some massive, bodily lumps in there now as properly. So we’ll relish that.
“New Zealand are at their finest in the intervening time, and I can’t wait to play them subsequent week.”
