Alex Lozowski, the Saracens centre, is the surprise inclusion in England’s 36-player training squad for the forthcoming autumn internationals.

Lozowski, who has five caps, can also cover fly-half alongside the midfield and has not featured for his country since being ignominiously replaced at half-time by Eddie Jones, Steve Borthwick’s predecessor, during England’s home match against Japan in 2018. That match is also notorious for being Zach Mercer’s last cap for England, as well as signalling the start of a four-year exile from international rugby for Danny Care.

“He has started the season really well on the back of a really good pre-season,” said Mark McCall, Saracens’ director of rugby. “There are one or two 13s who are injured in the league, with Henry Slade not being able to play; we are trying to defend a bit more akin to England and Alex is doing a good job. Maybe that gives him an opportunity to get back.”

Lozowski, 31, is included alongside his No8 team-mate, Tom Willis, the brother of Jack, whose only cap came as a second-half replacement in a World Cup warm-up defeat by Wales last year. Trevor Davison, the Northampton tighthead who is renowned for his scrummaging prowess, is also included,  having won the last of his two caps in the autumn of 2021.

“Tom Willis is probably in the best shape he has been in and we are seeing that in his performances,” McCall added of his No8.

The squad will assemble next Monday with training taking place over three days at Pennyhill Park and Twickenham. No captain has yet been named on the official squad list.

Up front, there is no place for promising prop duo Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Afo Fasogbon, with Borthwick opting to prioritise continuity in selection from the Six Nations and summer tour of Japan and New Zealand. Only five of the 20 selected forwards – No 8 Greg Fisilau, flanker Tom Pearson and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie alongside Willis and Davison – have not yet featured in a match-day squad for England in 2024.

Behind, scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet and utility back Oscar Beard are rewarded for impressive starts to the season, while Elliot Daly returns after missing the New Zealand tour for the birth of his first child. At fly-half, with Lozowski and full-back George Furbank able to deputise, just the two Smiths, Marcus and Fin, are included, with George Ford not considered for selection at this stage due to a thigh injury sustained in Sale’s loss at Saracens last weekend.

Alongside Ford, scrum-half Alex Mitchell joins the likes of the Curry brothers, Tom and Ben, and Bevan Rodd on the treatment table. Slade, Alex Dombrandt and Luke Northmore will all attend the three-day training camp next week as part of their rehabilitation from injury.

“After watching a competitive and high-scoring start to the Premiership season, I am once again looking forward to gathering the players together,” said Borthwick. “The squad reflects the depth and quality we have in English rugby.”

England will face New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan on consecutive weekends this November at Twickenham.

Lozowski stepped out of shadows at Saracens – he can do so for England

The infernal uncertainty surrounding England’s midfield has hardly ceased, but a call-up for Alex Lozowski rewards an accomplished operator for an eye-catching start to the Premiership campaign.

Having overcome ACL damage that required surgery and wiped out the vast majority of last season, the 31-year-old becomes the latest player to crawl out of the “black-hole game” against Japan six years ago.

That autumn international in 2018, which England eventually won 35-15, earned its moniker because it appeared to have ended the Test careers of Danny Care and Zach Mercer as well as Lozowski, who started at inside centre in a makeshift midfield partnership with Jack Nowell.

Lozowski, who missed an elementary tackle on Ryoto Nakamura to allow the latter to dive under the posts, was hooked at half-time. Eddie Jones turned to Owen Farrell in a bid to shore up an experimental line-up that was not clicking.

Fast-forward to the present day and Lozowski, who qualifies for Italy and was sounded out about a switch to the Azzurri under World Rugby’s new eligibility rules, has returned to the England fold under Borthwick.

He joins five other potential centres in the 36-man group. Tommy Freeman, Oscar Beard and Elliot Daly are auxiliary options, with Ollie Lawrence and Fraser Dingwall there as specialists.

At first glance, Lozowski seems a sensible deputy for Henry Slade, who has been named in a “rehabilitation” section alongside Luke Northmore. The latter two toured Japan and New Zealand and, evidently, cannot be too far from returning to fitness. Slade has leant on his familiarity with the defensive blitz, a system also employed by Exeter Chiefs, to become a more prominent figure with England in recent years.

It could well be that Slade recovers from his shoulder operation sufficiently to reprise his combination with Lawrence for the beginning of an autumn schedule in which Borthwick’s team host New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Japan.

Do not count out Lozowski, though. His is a sensible selection that could steel England. It should not be viewed as short-termism either. While he will be 34 at the next World Cup in 2027, Lozowksi has the quietly determined manner of someone eager to make up for lost time.

After booting 22 points in a bonus-point defeat of Sale last weekend, the former Wasp joked about his delayed ascension to the role of front-line place-kicker for Saracens. “I’ve been waiting 10 years for a crack at goal with Faz knocking about,” he said with a smile.

In truth, the game reinforced the resourceful player that Lozowski has become. Sale were hurt by early injuries to George Ford and Rob du Preez, and stayed in touch until the hour mark, yet succumbed to a heavy defeat thanks to a statement second half from Saracens.

Lozowski led the defensive line, completing nine tackles. Early in the second half, he sliced through after cutting an incisive first-phase angle and lifted a beautiful pass off his left hand to try-scorer Tobias Elliott.

His place-kicking was accurate and he rubber-stamped the win by feeding an unmarked Elliot Daly off his right hand.

Later, Lozowski spoke about how Saracens were now placing less emphasis on grappling in collisions and were intent on using their athleticism as a side to swarm opponents with rapid and relentless line-speed in a rush defence. That sounds conducive to the strategy that England have implemented since the start of 2024 and Joe El-Abd will surely be asked to stick with the blitz that Felix Jones introduced.

Lozowski would not be drawn on whether he feels more authoritative or influential in this new era at Saracens. Asked a similar question, though, Mark McCall did not hesitate. Saracens’ director of rugby described Lozowski as an individual who had been “waiting to emerge as a voice in the squad” and suggested that the additional responsibility of place-kicking had accelerated that process.

For years, it appeared as if Lozowski would finish his career on a total of five caps – two against Argentina in the summer of 2017 and two more that autumn before the “black-hole game” 12 months later. This was despite possessing considerable toughness as well as abilities as a kicker, a passer and a runner. His performance against Leinster in the 2019 Champions Cup final, a contest of bristling intensity, was outstanding.

He may not add to that handful of Tests, of course, but Lozowski covers a multitude of positions; 13, 12, 10, 15 and 14, in that order, to use shirt numbers. We know that Borthwick covets adaptability and is curious about deploying a six-two split of forwards on the bench.

That is not to make Lozowski a victim of his versatility and pigeonhole him as a problem-solving bench man. He could be the combative figure to step up and start at centre against the All Blacks to begin an autumn that now looks more important for Borthwick on the results front. Paired with Lawrence, he would attack at 12 and defend at 13, as Slade has been doing.

Coaches and analysts, as well as pundits and punters, will have been comparing and contrasting Lozowski and Slade over much of the past decade. They actually went very nicely together against the Pumas in 2017 under the guidance of Sam Vesty as England’s stand-in attack coach. Lozowski has probably been flintier in contact, while the left boot of Slade, who has 60 more caps, brings balance to the kicking game. A left-footed Lozowski would have been hard to ignore.

It is always intriguing to see newbies bolt into the reckoning. Lozowski represents the second-chancers, and one suspects his inclusion will be met with nods of approval around England.