Alex Coles insists England must be ready to fill the leadership and playing voids created by Maro Itoje’s absence when they clash with South Africa at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Itoje has been rested for the July tour – the first time he has been stood down for a campaign since making his Test debut a decade ago – with Jamie George deputising as captain in his absence.
Steve Borthwick names his team to take on the world champions on Thursday and with Itoje unavailable, the head coach is expected to pair Coles alongside George Martin in the second row with Ollie Chessum continuing at blindside flanker.
Coles was outstanding in the knockout phase of Northampton’s recent march to the Gallagher Prem title and now has the opportunity to prove England can cope without their British and Irish Lions skipper.
“Maro is an absolutely fantastic player, one of the world’s best locks,” said Coles, who started at lock in last year’s 2-0 series victory in Argentina.
“I’ve been privileged to get to play alongside him, work with him and train with him. I’ve picked up and learned so much from him.
“I’m hoping he’s resting up really well because he’s such an important player for us and we need him firing for the next few years.
“In some respects the absence of a senior pro, an experienced player, our captain, is always going to be a factor, but it leaves an opportunity for other people to to step up and to develop themselves.
“We saw how well we did in Argentina last summer when we had so many players on the Lions tour. Loads of people took their opportunity, stepped up and developed their own game.”
Cadan Murley appears to have shaded Noah Caluori in the competition to join Immanuel Feyi-Waboso on the wings at the fortress of South African rugby, where England have triumphed just once in 1972.
Freddie Steward has become a doubt after sustaining an ankle injury in training on Tuesday, potentially clearing the way at full-back for George Furbank to make his first Test appearance since November 2024.
Borthwick’s plans at scrum-half are shrouded in doubt with Alex Mitchell, Ben Spencer and Jack van Poortvliet all in contention.
England enter the Nations Championship opener on the back of a four-Test losing run that registered their worst ever Six Nations performance.
Facing South Africa at Ellis Park is one of the toughest assignments in world rugby but Coles is optimistic that a corner will be turned with further clashes against Fiji and Argentina to come this month.
“We didn’t deliver what we wanted to in the Six Nations and that’s something we’ve been working really hard at in terms of improving our performances,” he said.
“Hopefully through the training effort, through all the hard work we put in, the results will start to improve from the Six Nations.”
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