The ‘six or seven’ England changes Sam Warburton would make versus Italy

With broken England still picking up the pieces following their second successive Six Nations no-show, Sam Warburton has become the latest Test rugby luminary to sift through the debris.

The retired Welsh back-rower, who skippered his country to back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2013, had felt Steve Borthwick’s English side were the real deal after extending their winning run to 12 Test matches when beating Wales in Round One of the 2026 championship.

However, having since witnessed the “chastening” defeat to Scotland and Ireland to consign England to fourth place and set for a minor placing finish rather than challenging for the title, the two-tour British and Irish Lions skipper has revised his early February opinion and is expecting wholesale changes for their Round Four match away to Italy on March 7.

“England have now underperformed twice in a row, so I would expect changes – maybe six or seven of them,” he claimed in his latest Times column.

“Quite drastic…”

“That might sound quite drastic, but you cannot reward mediocrity in an England shirt. Changes have to be made, and they will be made by Borthwick, just judging by how ruthless he was with his early alterations on Saturday.”

So brutal were England in the opening half of their loss to the Irish that Luke Cowan-Dickie and Freddie Steward were both hooked by the coach before the interval, a desperate ploy that turned out to be an unsuccessful one in the dispiriting 42-21 defeat.

One alteration that Warburton feels must be made is the recall of Fin Smith at out-half in place of George Ford. The Northampton conductor had the baton in four of England’s five outings last spring in a campaign that saw them finish second to France by a point.

But with Smith since touring with the British and Irish Lions, Ford re-emerged to take back the shirt on the Americas tour last July and has kept hold of it since then.

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The level of his contributions rapidly plummeted, though, at Murrayfield and Allianz Stadium on recent Saturdays, with Warburton especially startled by one statistic he found hard to fathom regarding the supposed English game plan.

“This is not about picking out scapegoats,” he continued, getting about to his opinion on the No.10. “In circumstances like this, you need to respect what players have done. So, these past two games do not make George Ford a bad player.

“He is a fine player who has implemented England’s game plan very well, but something really puzzled me about the Ireland match, and I’m not sure whether this is down to Ford or the coaches.

“He is always picked because he’s an excellent tactical kicker with impressive distance. And he showed that when he made 980 kick metres against Wales, easily winning the game of kick-tennis in that match.

“But against Ireland, Ford only had six kicks in the whole game, for 151 metres. England dominated Wales not just physically, but also in the kicking battle – so why such a massive change in strategy?

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“I don’t buy the argument that it was because they were chasing the scoreline. My argument is, if you need to score 17 points, or you need to chase to score 17 points, the game plan is surely the same.

“You score points how you score points. It doesn’t really make a difference. Maybe if you’ve got five minutes to go, you might have to play a little bit deeper than normal. But early in the game, when you’ve still got an hour on the clock, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to score points.

“As a result, I do think that now is a good time to give Fin Smith a go. I still think Ford is valuable for his experience.

“I would endorse keeping him in the squad for a long time because he’s got so much that he can pass down to someone like Smith, but now, with the championship gone, is the time to look at Smith and see what he can do. I think he has a very high ceiling and he needs game time.”

Warburton also suggested England should give Max Ojomoh a go at No.12, as he shone there against Argentina at the end of the autumn before the jersey was given back to Fraser Dingwall. He also backed Henry Pollock, claiming he had “the most energy in the team” last Saturday.

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Warburton’s preference was for a back row of Sam Underhill, Ben Earl and Pollock to start in Rome, adding that Jamie George at hooker and George Furbank at full-back were other must-have changes.

But he argued that England should stick with the likes of Ellis Genge and Ollie Chessum and stressed that Borthwick has to back the “clearly not at his best” skipper, Maro Itoje.

“England need Itoje back to his best as a player, but other changes are needed if they are to return to their best as a team,” he finished.

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