Marcus Smith has been entrusted with the fly-half duties for England’s Guinness Six Nations conflict with France after Steve Borthwick made the bombshell choice to drop captain Owen Farrell.
Farrell has been demoted to the bench for the primary time since 2015 for Saturday’s Twickenham showdown with the Grand Slam champions.
Ellis Genge is called captain for the primary time instead of Farrell however there aren’t any additional adjustments to the beginning XV that toppled Wales in spherical three.
“The players selected to face our visitors are again a reflection of what I see to be the right balance of personnel for the challenge we face in this game,” England head coach Borthwick mentioned.
“Marcus Smith starts at fly-half and Dave Ribbans returns to the match day 23. Congratulations to Ellis Genge who will captain the side for the first time.”
Smith began the event within the quantity 10 jersey towards Scotland however then needed to accept cameo roles off the bench towards Italy and Wales, along with his recreation time in Cardiff restricted to only 14 seconds.
The 24-year-old was launched to play for Harlequins final weekend and having delivered a cultured man of the match show towards Exeter, now finds himself given the duty of launching England’s backline.
Farrell’s kind to this point within the Six Nations has been cheap sufficient, however his success ratio off the kicking tee reads an unacceptable 47 per cent.
However, Borthwick was nonetheless anticipated to maintain religion with England’s talisman and has as soon as once more proven his ruthless streak by freezing him out of the beginning XV.
Farrell follows Manu Tuilagi and Ben Youngs among the many massive names jettisoned by Borthwick since he changed Eddie Jones as head coach in December.