The uncapped pair are the only players in the squad to have regularly played at inside centre, although Exeter’s Slade has filled in there previously. Regardless, it means that Borthwick faces yet another overhaul of his midfield.
His starting midfield from the World Cup semi-final against South Africa of Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi and Joe Marchant are all unavailable for the start of the Six Nations campaign. Tommy Freeman and Elliot Daly could also feature at outside centre.
The uncapped Beard suffered a concussion in Harlequins’ victory over Ulster while Cowan-Dickie picked up a knock against La Rochelle on Sunday.
On Monday, Borthwick was still gathering fitness updates at the Six Nations launch in Dublin and sounded his frustration at the flow of information from the Premiership clubs. “We’re still gathering all this information now,” Borthwick said. “One of the challenges for the last Six Nations was the reporting systems between club and country aren’t what they should be and aren’t what they’re going to be next year, but nothing has changed from last year to this year.
“Next year when we have enhanced EPS, we will be in a better situation. Right now we’re dealing with information that we haven’t been aware of as quickly as we can, which is disappointing but we’ll have to keep doing as well as we possibly can.”
“I don’t want to overstate that. But we are in the same situation where last night we were finding things out for the first time. Which is not what it should be.
“Going forward we’ll have a new agreement in place and we aim to have all the information of the players’ training volumes and loads, the same systems they have with medical information, all of these things. It should be much more aligned.
“I think what has happened here is that everybody has inherited a system that hasn’t had full alignment. What we aim to do from next year onwards is that we have full alignment so that the club game can thrive, and the national team can thrive.”
England’s overworked players a growing concern
Borthwick admits he will struggle to bridge the fitness gap heading into the Six Nations as Telegraph Sport can reveal a vast discrepancy in playing time versus other countries.
Borthwick bemoaned England’s conditioning levels in his first campaign in charge a year ago – a view that was subsequently endorsed by a Rugby Football Union review in a third successive two-win tournament.
England touched down in Girona on Tuesday for a warm-weather training camp but will only have five full training sessions before their opening match against Italy in Rome on Feb. 3, where Borthwick is targeting an explosive start.
That will be made harder by the volume of matches that England’s players have faced since the World Cup quarter-finals. Statistics released by Opta show England’s 36-man squad have played an average of 712 minutes per player. The next highest is France’s 589 minutes per player. Compared to the centrally managed Irish squad, England’s team have played three more matches per man.
“If you look at the number of minutes the English players play it is quite clear that’s not changed,” Borthwick said. “If you look at since the quarter-final weekend how much the English players have played versus others, the French players have played a lot. The number one thing I’ll say is that the players are match-hardened. So that’s a great benefit. Generally I will try to look at the positive side and I have a group of players that are match-hardened. They are ready to go.”
