Inside England’s data-sharing, injury-blitzing Prem club pact

Before England’s players cycled across their Spanish training base to their high-intensity session on Wednesday afternoon, performance director Phil Morrow delivered a clean fitness report on his squad.

England’s prop shortage is well documented but overall, their medical list is less concerning than in recent years. While their rivals are going into the Six Nations missing clusters of front-line players, tight-head Will Stuart is the only absentee from England’s strongest XV.

Injuries cannot be an excuse for England in this upcoming campaign. Their £33million-a-year arrangement with the Prem clubs – part of the Professional Game Partnership, an eight-year programme in effect since 2024 – means Steve Borthwick has been able to closely manage his players’ conditioning and medical care. The RFU put the money up which is paid to the clubs so that England have control of certain players’ workloads.

It gives Borthwick access to a pool of advanced club performance data and means he has been able to tailor player programmes to ensure they will be ready to face Wales next week. Tom Roebuck is a prime example. The Sale winger has not played since featuring for England in their unbeaten autumn series and, if the decision belonged to his club, he would have made his comeback against Northampton Saints last weekend.

‘It’s imminent,’ Sale coach Alex Sanderson said three weeks ago, when asked about Roebuck’s comeback. ‘If it’s not Saints then he will go straight to (England’s pre-Six Nations) camp in Girona. It’s just a question of his loading and what the RFU think. England are in charge of his return to play.

‘It’s always a conversation around where we think he’s at and what they want out of him. I spoke to Phil for an hour. They have total control over the length of time he can have off and his medical procedures because he’s in the Enhanced Elite Player Squad. That’s what we buy into. They’ve been great.’

England head coach Borthwick and his England team have the final say on all sports science and medical matters for the 25 players on enhanced contracts. They oversee the workload of the likes of Tom Curry and Maro Itoje when they return to their clubs, ensuring they are in peak condition for the demands of Test rugby.

‘The world lives in black and white and there’s a lot of grey in rugby in terms of being available for selection or not,’ says Morrow. ‘There are probably a lot of players who play a lot of weeks where someone would say he’s fit to play and someone else would say he is not fit to play. These are extremely qualified medical professionals with slightly different opinions.

‘We made a decision that meant a player missed the autumn for us but it was the right thing for the player. In the long run, the relationship stays strong and the players appreciate that they’re getting looked after. There will be the odd moment where we would go, “OK, we don’t think it’s right for him to play” and that’s the odd pinch point that gets talked about. In general, those problems don’t come up too much.’

The data sharing works both ways. GPS numbers from England’s training camp in Girona are uploaded to a cloud system almost immediately that can be accessed by the players’ clubs.

Borthwick’s coaching team have full access to his players’ data before they arrive in camp. Previously, they were largely entering campaigns blind. The technological and collaborative evolution has smoothed the edges on a once malfunctioning relationship. 

Freddie Steward, the England and Leicester full-back, reveals that he has been doing additional running after club training to ensure he is ready for the demands of Test rugby.

‘There are almost two agendas,’ says Steward. ‘You’ve got your club agenda and you have England on the back of your mind. It’s about a bit of maturity, understanding there are certain things you need in a Test match that you might not get at a club. For example, me and Jack van Poortvliet sometimes have to do some running top-ups at the end of Leicester training to make sure we are where we need to be fitness-wise. We’ll ask the GPS guys if we’ve got enough high-speed metres and if he says no then we’ll top up. It’s a non-negotiable.’

The onus for rest periods usually falls on the clubs. Joe Marler is the performance director for Team England Rugby and is actively pushing to reduce the number of minutes played by Test stars.

‘With every guy, you see what’s going on in their lives, their medical history, how many games they’ve played and you try to tailor as best as you can for each of them,’ adds Morrow. ‘I’ve known Maro since he was 17. I split players into three categories: development phase, performance phase, legacy phase. 

‘You start as a player and you put all your work in, then you become really good, then you get to a point where some players tail off and some players maintain.

‘Maro is creeping into that legacy phase. He’s an incredibly important leader and we would tailor what he does in the week to make sure he’s ready to perform on a Saturday. As you get older, you want to make sure you keep your strength and your acceleration. There are certain things with senior players that you don’t want to compromise but you might take the overall work volume down because he’s got a lot of miles on the clock.’

The core of England’s squad are in their performance years. They are fit and firing for the Six Nations campaign, with expectations higher than ever before in the Borthwick era.