England have been handed a gruelling 25,000-mile travel itinerary for their inaugural Nations Championship fixtures in July and are expected to split their squad and field a weakened team against Fiji as a result.
As revealed exclusively by the Guardian, England’s match against Fiji – the week after facing South Africa in Johannesburg and the week before playing away in Argentina – will be staged at Everton’s new Dickinson Hill Stadium. Given the logistical problems that playing three matches in three continents in a fortnight entail, it is believed England will split their squad and leave a largely second-string side at home to face the Pacific Islanders.
While Fiji will be the “home” side against England, they have opted to bring their three summer matches – they also face Wales and Scotland – to the UK for commercial reasons. Wales have the benefit of facing Fiji first before travelling to South Africa and then Argentina, while Scotland begin against the Pumas then head to Durban to play the Springboks before completing their campaign against the Pacific Islanders. Wales and Scotland will play Fiji at the Principality Stadium and Murrayfield respectively but organisers did not want England to do so at Twickenham, which will host the finals weekend in November.
As the lowest-ranked southern hemisphere team in this half of the fixture list, Fiji were expected previously to play their “home” matches in either South Africa or Argentina to limit travel logistics. The Guardian reported last summer, however, that Fiji had targeted the UK as a summer base and while Port Elizabeth at one point emerged as a likely venue, the Pacific Islanders have got their way.
The upshot is that the first senior England men’s match to take place away from Twickenham since 2019 is expected to be missing most of Steve Borthwick’s frontline players. It remains to be seen whether Borthwick will attend all three matches or temporarily hand the reins elsewhere but his immediate focus is reversing England’s desperate dip in form after the 42-21 defeat by Ireland last weekend.
Borthwick has the only fallow week in this year’s championship to set about arresting England’s drastic decline before away matches against Italy and France with the hooker Jamie George admitting the senior leadership group including himself, the captain Maro Itoje, George Ford and Ellis Genge must earn their corn.
Asked if it was time for the senior leaders to stand up, he said: “Of course it is. When things are going well, it’s time for the leadership to step up also. Our leadership group has been very strong for a long period of time. Our coaching staff are fantastic, our leadership are fantastic. Everyone needs to step up.”
