"A Big Evolution, A Big Change" – Steve Borthwick: England coach excited for Asher Opoku-Fordjour's debut and updates on Dan Cole's England career

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England head coach Steve Borthwick has named an uncapped hopeful on the bench, as he penned in his side to play Japan on Sunday at the Allianz Stadium. Highly rated prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour is set for his England debut, with the 20-year-old talent named among the replacements to take on Eddie Jones’ Japan side.

Without a doubt one of the most talked about young English talents, Opoku-Fordjour has been in the England camp for the past three weeks, as he was called up following the international retirement of Joe Marler. Borthwick was full of praise for the Sale front row, and gave an insight into how the prop has been progressing ahead of his first taste of a senior Test match.

"So the very first training session Asher, it was three weeks ago when he came to the squad and he certainly took no step backwards. He really went out in the session and I think everybody in the squad, everybody around saw what a competitive player, this guy is.

“I think he ended up with a load of stitches over one eye, with a dead leg, he looked like he played a physical match. It was training, but that's the nature, he throws himself into it and that impresses absolutely everybody in the squad."

“In the first training session he played, three weeks ago, he side-stepped two players and made a line break. You start seeing straight away that this a player with incredible athleticism and he's a very good scrummager.”

Opoku-Fordjour first came on to the radar of the mainstream rugby audience following a Premiership match between Harlequins and Sale. The post match interview with Joe Marler brought the attention to the young prop, who hand-picked Opoku-Fordjour as one for the future, alongside his own prop protege Fin Baxter. Both men find themselves on the bench to take on Japan, with Ellis Genge and Will Stuart the preferred starters for Steve Borthwick’s scrum.

Borthwick would go on to explain how he would often speak with the likes of Marler and Dan Cole, to discuss the breakthrough talents for England’s one and three jerseys.

“When you want to understand how good players are you speak to the best players. When I speak to Joe Marler and Dan Cole, and talk about some of the best props around, they give me a recommendation of Asher.

“They say, this guy’s a really good scrummager. You start going, 'right, there’s something in this player'. He’s a guy who comes with great recommendations by experienced Test match players.

“He shows incredible competitiveness. I think he’s already shown a lot of resilience in his career, what happened at Wasps, moved up to Sale, developed so fast and so well up at Sale. He deserves enormous credit for what he’s done, and Sale, clearly, for developing him since he left from Wasps.”

“You look at that charge down by last week [by Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit] to then go and score the try, you’ve seen incredible athleticism. So Ash has got that athleticism without question. Fundamentally, in the front row, you also need to make sure you scrum. Asher has proven at Premiership level that he can scrum really well. Now it’s about making the step up to Test level.”

An area of Opoku-Fordjour’s game that has gotten the England staff even more excited, is his ability to play on both sides of the scrum. Borthwick explained how invaluable it is to a team to have such a weapon in your arsenal, with the ability to switch Opoku-Fordjour from loose head to tight head delighting the England head coach.

“Yes. I think the value of having a prop, with the ability to switch sides… you look at some other nations, and you look at the likes of Thomas du Toit, his ability to play on both sides of the scrum. That's enormously valuable, especially when you start picking squads for the major tournament. You end up having different assets and different amounts of flexibility.

“Delighted that he played for the (England) A-team last week, having trained with us for several days, then went and played with the A-team and was able to play at loose-head there. He’s been playing at tight-head for Sale, and it’s clear most of the senior rugby has been played at tight-head, and he’s done really well.”

“I see a really determined group here, led by Jamie (George), that believe in the path we are on, believe in how we’re trying to play – and I see ambitious players who want the ball. And I’m backing them to do it. Yes, we’ve had some setbacks; yes, we’ve had some results not go our way, but I believe that the future of this team will be really positive.

“Getting in position to win those games shows the strength of this team, as well as where we’re short, and we’re working very hard to ensure that we convert those into wins in the future.”

The new era is certainly in full swing for England, with Opoku-Fordjour set to become the ninth player to make a Test match debut in the space of just 12 matches. Dating back to the 2024 Six Nations opener against Italy, England have seen the arrivals of Chandler Cunningham-South, Fraser Dingwall, Fin Smith, Manny Feyi-Waboso, Ethan Roots, Fin Baxter, Tom Roebuck and Ollie Sleightholme. The superstar Sale prop is the next in line for a Test cap, with Borthwick emphasising the evolution of this England team.

“Throughout the team, you see a big evolution, a big change. You’ve seen in the back five of the scrum over the last period of time, you’ve seen Ben Earl emerge as an 8, you’ve seen George Martin come into that group, Ollie Chessum come into that group, you’ve seen a number of new players in the back five of the scrum.

“You’ve seen a hooker, Luke Cowan-Dickie, come back, Theo Dan, Gabriel Oghre, in the summer. I’ve talked a lot about the back line and the pace we have now in our back line. We’ve got a bunch of young nines, a lot of pace on the edges. Now clearly as we move forward, there will be more evolution within that front row.

“We’ve seen Fin Baxter come through, he’s come through so well. I’m looking at what the next props are. One thing that’s clear, building upon that, is athleticism. As you start looking at the players I’ve picked over this last 12 months and this next period, with this England team, is athletic players.”

Joe Marler’s England retirement turned the spotlight to Dan Cole, with the veteran tight-head a long time friend of the Harlequin. The two have shared a career together in the England camp, and more often than not found themselves sharing a room when on tour across the world. Cole is the second most capped men’s player of all time, with 116 appearances to his name putting him behind only his ‘For the Love of Rugby’ podcast co-host Ben Youngs (127).

At 37-years-old, there has long been speculation that Cole may be on his way to ending his England career, and he could well have passed the tight-head torch on to Asher Opoku-Fordjour. Borthwick rounded off the discussion by providing the latest update on Cole’s England intentions, with no plans in place just yet for the Leicester Tigers veteran to hang up the Test match boots ahead of the 2025 Six Nations.

“Coley and I speak regularly. I value Coley's opinion on rugby generally, the program, the scrum, so we speak regularly. I want to make sure that Dan Cole can continue being an England player for a long time. I sense no hesitation in him. I think he enjoys being part of the program.

“I think he adds enormous value. He’ll be with the squad all the way through to the match on Sunday. I’m really grateful to him for doing that because it will be helping continue to develop those players. It’s the same thing with Joe Marler. His role with the squad throughout the last few years to help other players has been enormously valuable.”

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