At least it will make a change for Steve Borthwick to be running out at Twickenham as captain of England. He has led the troops into Rome’s Stadio Flaminio and those New Zealand bearpits, Eden Park in Auckland and Christchurch’s AMI Stadium - all this year - but has the chance to stake a long-term claim to the leadership and, by inference, make himself a candidate for next summer’s tour to South Africa by the Lions.

Borthwick was confirmed in his role yesterday by Martin Johnson, who put no specific time frame to the appointment. The Saracens lock is not merely captain for the Investec Challenge Series next month, he is there for as long as Johnson believes he can do the job as player and leader. “I just want to support him as much as possible and I know he’ll enjoy all the responsibility and work that goes with being captain of England,” the team manager said.

Johnson can say that with feeling, having led England 39 times himself. The career patterns of the two men, both of them locks, have followed similar paths in that Borthwick, like Johnson, played his first international against France and the captaincy came their way at the same age. But Borthwick had to work hard for the job security that Johnson enjoyed as a player; England have seldom lacked locks and only twice, in 2005-06 and last season, has Borthwick had a lengthy run in the side.

Yet his leadership ability and mature thinking were consistently recognised at Bath during his ten years in the West Country - he led the club for three successive seasons - and, when he joined Saracens in the summer, the first thing his new director of rugby, Eddie Jones, did was to make him co-captain with Andy Farrell. As far as Jones was concerned, Borthwick, capped 40 times, was the natural choice for England, although Johnson went out of his way to thank Phil Vickery, the London Wasps prop who was also a candidate, for the work he had done as captain of his country.

“My overriding aim is to help England get off to a winning start in four very challenging games,” Borthwick, who at 29 is young enough to go through to the 2011 World Cup, said.

He takes the post at a time of great change, when England have a new system of player-release in place designed to facilitate the preparation of the national side, and the RFU will want to see positive results in return for the substantial sums of money it pays the Guinness Premiership clubs as part of the agreement.

But the squad is neither settled nor successful, despite last season’s appearance in the World Cup final and the second-place finish in the RBS Six Nations Championship, England’s best showing for five years. November will be no picnic for Borthwick since England play not only the hard men from the Pacific Islanders team on November 8, but the three Sanzar countries on successive weekends.

During that time they need to garner as much success as possible, to elevate themselves one place in the IRB rankings to become one of the top four seeds when the draw for the 2011 World Cup is made on December 1. The rush is on for Wales and France, too; both are sufficiently well placed to force a way into the top four, but if England and Wales are to do so, they must overturn the All Blacks, the Tri-Nations winners and the world’s No 1 team, and South Africa, holders of the World Cup.

Not even the IRB can say with certainty what each team must do, there being so many variables in the make-up of the rankings list. The first message from Borthwick, therefore, when the first starting XV is announced on Tuesday, will be to tell his players to concentrate on the next game. The rest will take care of themselves.

Rankings race

The draw for the 2011 World Cup pools will be made in London on December 1 and will be based on the IRB rankings after next month’s results. The rankings’ complex structure takes account of the location, scoreline and degree of difficulty of each game, but England will not be one of the four seeded teams unless they improve on their present fifth place. Results against the combined Pacific Islanders team are not included.

IRB rankings

1. New Zealand 92.04 2. South Africa 87.75 3. Australia 85.69 4. Argentina 83.36 5. England 83.16 6. Wales 80.12 7. France 78.99 8. Ireland 77.18 9. Scotland 76.92 10. Italy 75.57

The autumn international schedule

Nov 1: Australia v New Zealand (Hong Kong) Nov 8: Wales v South Africa; Scotland v New Zealand; Ireland v Canada; Italy v Australia; France v Argentina; USA v Uruguay; England v Pacific Islanders Nov 14: Wales v Canada Nov 15: England v Australia; Scotland v South Africa; Ireland v New Zealand; Italy v Argentina; France v Pacific Islanders Nov 16: Japan v USA Nov 22: England v South Africa; Ireland v Argentina; Scotland v Canada; Wales v New Zealand; France v Australia; Japan v USA; Italy v Pacific Islanders Nov 29: England v New Zealand; Wales v Australia.