England forced into late change just days before clash with Scotland after Steve Borthwick loses star to injury ahead of Six Nations showdown

England have summoned their super-patient ‘Superman’ to answer a second-row emergency after Leicester giant George Martin was ruled out of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup revenge mission at Twickenham.

Martin was unable to train last week due to a minor knee problem following the 26-25 win over France in the last round of the Six Nations, but he was still included among the replacements for the showdown with Scotland. However, the 23-year-old lock was withdrawn from the match-day 23 on Thursday morning and the vacancy has been filled by Bath’s Ted Hill.

The highly-regarded former Worcester captain normally operates as a flanker, but will be asked to show his adaptability by covering the second row. It is a sudden opportunity for the 25-year-old to ignite his Test career, which has so far yielded just two caps and little more than half-an-hour of game-time, as a telling indication of just how much back-row talent Steve Borthwick has at his disposal. Hill has been a force of nature for Bath and has more than earned his shot.

Having earned the tag of ‘Super Ted’ after emerging as a home-grown teen prospect at Worcester, Hill was similarly acclaimed yesterday by Maro Itoje, as the England captain said: ‘I am very happy for Ted. He is a player I have admired for a number of years, at Worcester and then at Bath.

‘He is a supreme athlete. He looks like Clarke Kent and Superman with his glasses. He is a man who is carved out of Greek stone! I am very happy that I hopefully get an opportunity to play with him.’

It is more than six years since Hill made his international debut with a late cameo off the bench against Japan at Twickenham. Since then, he has had to settle for just a solitary appearance as a replacement against the USA in 2021, so this promotion is reward for his dedication and perseverance.

The vacancy in England’s side for the clash at Twickenham has been filled by Bath’s Ted Hill

Steve Borthwick was forced into a late change and had to call up Bath forward Ted Hill

‘He’s been great,’ said attack coach Richard Wigglesworth. We’ve had him in and around the squad for a while now. He’s played really well for Bath, so we know his talents with the ball. I’m sure he’s excited to get his chance, and we’re excited to watch him go when he comes on.

‘He’s another guy to add a bit of pace as well. He’s seriously quick – he’s an incredible athlete, Ted. He’s not only quick across the ground, but quick in the air. He’s got a different set of super-strengths to George Martin, but we’ll expect him to bring the best of him when he comes on.’

Meanwhile, Wigglesworth acknowledged that England have to prove their ability to win from a position of strength this weekend, having found a peak of intensity to upset France, on the back of a long sequence of poor results. The national team have often played best with backs to the wall in recent years, but know that they cannot only deliver when being written off.

‘We do have to step on from that,’ said the former scrum-half. ‘We have seen from many teams in sport is that you can crumble under that (pressure from defeats) and this group haven’t done that. It’s been a strong group mentality to come back from that and play well when they feel like that.

‘But that is not a mark of a top, top team. The marker of a top team is you keep going out and delivering performances that get wins. We don’t want to go to “Result, reaction”. We want to be consistent in how we approach games and I think we have been doing that the last couple of weeks.’

As reported by Mail Sport, Bath fly-half Finn Russell has been cleared to start at 10 for Scotland on Saturday, after recovering from a head injury, while Darcy Graham, the Edinburgh wing, has been ruled out following their heavy collision in the defeat against Ireland.