Marcus Smith dropped by England as Steve Borthwick shuffles midfield pack
England have broken up their contentious playmaking axis of Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell as part of a revamped midfield selected for Sunday’s Six Nations clash with Italy.
Having started the last eight Tests together, Smith has been demoted to the bench to accommodate Owen Farrell’s selection at fly-half instead of inside centre.
Former England boss Eddie Jones hoped the creative alliance would blossom in time for the World Cup and Steve Borthwick retained the duo for his first game in charge against Scotland last Saturday, but they have fired only sporadically as a partnership.
Borthwick completed a significant overhaul of the midfield by replacing Joe Marchant with Henry Slade at outside centre while Ollie Lawrence fills the vacancy at 12.
Slade has recovered from the hip injury that forced him to sit out the 29-23 Calcutta Cup defeat in round one while the hard running Lawrence is promoted off the bench.
England starting line-up to face Italy
15. Freddie Steward; 14. Max Malins, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ollie Lawrence, 11. Ollie Hassell-Collins; 10. Owen Farrell (capt), 9. Jack van Poortvliet; 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Jamie George, 3. Kyle Sinckler; 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Ollie Chessum; 6. Lewis Ludlam, 7. Jack Willis, 8. Alex Dombrandt
Replacements: 16. Jack Walker, 17. Mako Vunipola, 18. Dan Cole, 19. Nick Isiekwe, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Alex Mitchell, 22. Marcus Smith, 23. Henry Arundell
