Monday, December 23, 2024

England tour of Japan: Marcus Smith at fly-half as Chandler Cunningham-South makes first start

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“I feel comfortable and have felt comfortable from the start, it is easy when you have a group like his who are so keen and are having to be pulled back,” George told BBC Sport.

“That’s a nice place to be as a captain. I am also very lucky to have the coaching staff that we do who are so attentive and their attention to detail is absolutely second to none. They make my life very, very easy.

“I also have some very experienced guys, but also some young guys with huge leadership potential in Ben Earl, Marcus Smith and people like that, who you can give the reigns to a little bit. That is hugely exciting.”

George Martin and Maro Itoje are the locks, with Sam Underhill and Ben Earl joining Cunningham-South in the back row.

The backline has a familiar look from the Six Nations, with Alex Mitchell at scrum-half, Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence in the midfield, and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman and George Furbank making up a lively back three.

“We had a big flip in emphasis on the way we want to attack [through the Six Nations],” said Slade.

“We realised if we did a little bit more focus on attack what we could do. Some of the players in the team have unbelievable X-factor, talent, speed and power. So it was just about getting the ball out to those boys.

“You’ve got boys like Manny [Feyi-Waboso] and Tommy Freeman in the outside channels. Some of those boys are unbelievable runners, so if we get the ball in the hand and let them do what they can do.

“We started to do that during the end of the campaign and long may it continue.”

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