Borthwick is squandering his one opportunity to tinker while patience is at its highest during a set of glorified friendlies
Borthwick
Borthwick suggested on Tuesday that the change will only be in attack: “The way they play is pretty interchangeable generally. We felt chatting to them, putting them in the other roles, it’s an important aspect of developing our attack. There’s an attacking emphasis here.”The obvious conclusion we can draw is that Lawrence feels his powerful carrying could be more effective in the 13 channel where he excels in the. Fair enough.
Lawrence has played this role brilliantly. Slade is not a poor carrier, but is not quite as destructive as the Bath man despite Borthwick’s insistence they are interchangeable. Additionally, if Lawrence carries at a wider position it shrinks the space Smith has to exploit in the subsequent phase. When you pull the lens further back to the point of these Autumn fixtures, such a small change is also disappointing because these matches are evidently glorified friendlies in preparation for the spring, and more broadly for the World Cup in three years’ time. Borthwick currently has the most goodwill to entertain, tinker and lose that he will get in a World Cup cycle. His fear to do so is more than a little concerning.
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