Inside the England camp: Why Steve Borthwick's been showing his players baseball clips ahead of Fiji clash, what they made of Joe Marler's Traitors 'backstabbing' and the brutal put-down they gave stand-in captain Ellis Genge

It was not long after the team’s Sunday roast when Steve Borthwick called Ellis Genge in for a meeting about the England captaincy.

Maro Itoje had picked up a knock in England’s victory over Australia and was going to miss two days of training, so Genge was tasked with leading the team through the week.

‘I got called into the Hillfield Bar,’ revealed Genge. ‘The week before, Steve called me in and told me I was coming off the bench against Australia with Luke Cowan-Dickie and the other boys, so when I got the text I thought it was going to be the same sort of conversation. When he said I was going to be captain, I was a bit taken aback by it.’

When Genge told the news to his team-mates, some of the older players poked fun at him. ‘Hope it goes better than last time,’ they told the prop, digging up memories of him leading the team in a record 53-10 defeat by France in 2023.

The mood is better in the England camp these days. They are on a run of eight straight victories and this week they opened their Pennyhill Park doors to rugby league coaches from Wigan Warriors to watch their preparations for the Fiji clash at Twickenham on Saturday.

Leading up to the Australia game, Steve Borthwick asked his players not in the matchday 23 to imitate the Wallabies. Noah Caluori chased contestable kicks like Joseph Suaalii and Jack Kenningham was given a scrum cap like Fraser McReight to replicate his breakdown presence.

Fiji’s freakish ball-playing skills cannot be imitated. This week, Borthwick gathered his players around in a meeting room and showed them clips of the Toronto Blue Jays falling agonisingly short in the deciding seventh match of baseball’s World Series. Isiah Kiner-Falefa made a dash from third base in search of the title-winning run but was beaten to the punch by a split-second.

‘Any baseball fans in the room?’ asked Borthwick at his team announcement on Thursday. ‘The recent World Series, I got that photo and showed that to the players. We started talking about fine margins, the little moments off the ball and said when you get to the very, very elite levels of sport it is tiny margins. What was that… 10cm? 

'That player had tried his heart out and 10cm, that is the nature of it. That is what makes sport so brilliant. Everyone is so invested in it and you have these moments of pure elation, pure euphoria and you have these moments of absolute heartbreak. It is 10cm.’

He backed up the scene with clips of Tom Curry’s off-the-ball work. Behind the scenes, Borthwick’s team of data analysts are working hard to find a comprehensive metric that measures off-the-ball work but for now they simply spend hours trawling through video footage. They replayed Curry's hit on Australia's Tane Edmed.

‘It’s what he does in those little moments to close down space, to make someone pass earlier or somebody to have to come back in rather than go outside because he’s worked into position that fast,’ said Borthwick. ‘It might not be the big moment of someone running away 50 yards and scoring the great try but it might be the moment that creates it. 

'As we move forward as a team, that is the kind of message we are talking about. We have got pace in the team. I also want a team that plays with physical intensity and heart.’

Curry has been named on the bench this weekend as he continues his return to fitness. Chandler Cunningham-South has been handed a rare start at No8, tasked with matching the powerful carrying of the Pacific Islanders.

England’s main area of focus is finishing their try-scoring opportunities. They have reviewed attacking footage from last week where the final pass went missing. With a triple play-making axis of Fin Smith, Marcus Smith and Fraser Dingwall, there is a hope that will not be an issue this weekend.

With bumps and bruises across the squad, the players have been given time to rest and recover as a brutally physical Fiji side lies in wait. The Pacific Islanders beat England at Twickenham ahead of the 2023 World Cup. 

Sam Underhill is responsible for social activities and he has put history-buff prop Joe Heyes in charge of team quizzes.

‘General Custer died at which battle?’ asked Heyes in his first quiz. None of the players knew the answer: Little Bighorn.

Henry Pollock and Freddie Steward spent their day off visiting an escape room, before the team relocated to a new hotel in Richmond for the weekend and gathered to watch Joe Marler in the final of The Celebrity Traitors.

'We were all watching in the team room,' said Alex Coles, the England lock. 'Joe seemed to have read it perfectly and he had Nick (Mohammed) onside and it was all going swimmingly... and then the rug was pulled right out underneath him. 

'Poor guy, he did really well and he’s shown his character, his personality. We all expected that he was going to do really well if he got a bit of time in there for people to get to know him. He’s just a very charismatic person, he’s got a great sense of humour and it’s nice to see a different side of a rugby player being shown to the general public. 

'We’re all really pleased for him. Shame he got back-stabbed at the end, but that’s the way the game goes I guess.'

Genge opted not to watch the show but he has been front and centre of everything else. He is determined to make his latest experience as captain a better one and has been drilling down on the team’s mindset throughout the week.

‘All the Fijians I have ever played with are brilliant, brilliant people,’ he told the forwards after their mauling session. ‘Typically, at the club, Fijians are the ones who are always laughing, joking.

‘They’re very laidback and very casual about things but don’t be fooled. Bill Mata (Genge's club-mate at Bristol) is a nasty piece of work when he’s on the pitch. I love watching him melt people for Bristol. I am sure he’s going to try to do the same to me on the weekend.

‘Though these people grow up on beaches throwing a rugby ball about and they’re lovely people, they are very nasty to play against. I don’t want any of the boys to be shocked by that. 

'There’s not a rich history of England v Fiji matches. But the bottom line is they beat us last time we played at Twickenham, so there’s a bit there.’