Deposed captain Jamie George has been fast-tracked back into England’s training squad to face France after Steve Borthwick cited his team’s lack of experience in the 27-22 Six Nations defeat to Ireland.

George was initially ruled out of the first two rounds of the Six Nations after injuring his hamstring in Saracens’ Champions Cup defeat to Castres. However, the 97-cap veteran will rejoin the England set-up as one of four hookers in the 35-man training squad.

The 34-year-old has been a virtual ever-present under Borthwick and took over the captaincy from Owen Farrell last year. However after England finished 2024 with just two wins in eight games, Borthwick decided to turn the page by promoting second row Maro Itoje to be his third captain in three years.

Borthwick frequently referenced England’s lack of experience and nous following their defeat to Ireland whose bench alone contained more than 500 caps versus England’s total of 81. Should George be added to the match-day squad then England are likely to boast a greater cap total than the France side who thrashed Wales 43-0 on Friday night.

England will start as heavy underdogs on Saturday, coming into the match off the back of a losing run of seven successive matches against tier-one opposition which equals their worst sequence since Andy Robinson lost his job as England head coach in 2006. However, back row Ben Earl insists there are no cracks appearing in the camp. “This group is still amazingly tight,” Earl said. “We’ve played a lot together. We’ve been through a lot of hurt together. We spoke about this week, we’ve been through a lot of hurt. There’s no denying that we’re trying to give our all. It’s never been for a lack of effort.

“Hopefully, and I trust there will be, because I trust in Steve, I trust in the players that we’ve got, that the dam will break and we’ll start getting momentum. The Six Nations is about momentum, winning Test matches is about momentum. We just need to get one. We’ll wait till that, and we’ll keep turning up. We’re not disheartened.

“No one wants to come in here and talk about us losing, no one. And you can either choose to just say, ‘This is rubbish’, and let it chip away at your mindset next week, and we’ve still got another four games to play. Or, we can say, ‘let’s try and use it in the right way. Let’s try and learn from what we fell short on this week, grow as a team, keep competing, keep evolving week on week, and we’ll see where we’re at’.”

The last time France visited Twickenham they inflicted a record 53-10 defeat on Borthwick’s team. Many England supporters will be fearful of another heavy defeat, particularly after Antoine Dupont’s Toulouse pulverised a Leicester Tigers side containing 11 internationals 80-12 in the final round of Champions Cup matches.

However, full-back Freddie Steward, who was part of that Leicester team, says England supporters should not panic just yet. “There’s no need to worry,” he said. “I’d like to think from today, of course we’re fuming that we haven’t come away with more but there were bits today. We keep saying it but the challenge is that 80-minute performance.

“We started the game really well and slipped off so the challenge next week will be to continue that

“It’ll be a big challenge, France at home. It’ll be a hell of a game, hell of a challenge for us but we’re back in front of our fans, we’re back at the Allianz. Regardless of today and that we came away with a [bonus] point, the boys will be wanting to prove a few people wrong in that game.”