England are expected to field a second-string team against Fiji in July due to a gruelling 25,000-mile travel itinerary for their inaugural Nations Championship fixtures. The match, scheduled for the week after England face South Africa in Johannesburg and the week before playing away in Argentina, will be staged at Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Given the logistical challenges of playing three matches on three continents in a fortnight, England are likely to split their squad and leave a largely second-string side at home to face the Pacific Islanders. Fiji, who are the nominal home side, have opted to bring their three summer matches—also against Wales and Scotland—to the UK for commercial reasons.
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 to play their home matches in South Africa or Argentina, but they successfully targeted the UK as a summer base.
The upshot is that the first senior England men’s match away from Twickenham since 2019 is expected to be missing most of Steve Borthwick’s frontline players. It remains unclear whether Borthwick will attend all three matches or temporarily hand over coaching duties elsewhere, as his immediate focus is on reversing England’s poor form after a 42-21 defeat against Ireland.
Borthwick has the only fallow week in this year’s championship to address England’s decline before away matches against Italy and France. Hooker Jamie George admitted the senior leadership group—including himself, captain Maro Itoje, George Ford, and Ellis Genge—must step up. Asked if it was time for senior leaders to stand up, George 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. Everyone needs to step up.'
