Centre Partnership
An exciting partnership, ahead of the World Cup, would be Dan Kelly at 12 and Ollie Lawrence at 13.
Both are young and explosive and excellent ball players, but I imagine Borthwick would want 1 experienced campaigner to partner a young player, for guidance and support.
Since Henry Slade has withdrawn due to injury, the mantle of the experienced player lies at Manu Tuilagi’s door. Therefore, the options Borthwick has at his arsenal are:
Manu, Lawrence
Manu, Marchant
Kelly, Manu.
Lawrence has experience at 12 as well as 13, meaning both him and Manu can interchange. However, Kelly (a specialist 12) is a great distributer and is solid in defence and provides something different to the destruction both Tuilagi and Lawrence can cause, plus there is the Leicester link. A question Borthwick will want an answer to is, how to best counter the Scottish partnership which will almost certainly be, Sione Tuipolotu and Chris Harris.
My choice: Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence
