Saracens captain Steve Borthwick will lead England in next month's internationals at Twickenham.

The former Bath lock has been selected in the squad and will captain them when they take on New Zealand, Argentina and Australia. He is the Men in Black's sole player in the squad despite suggestions centre Brad Barritt was in line to win a call-up.

Speaking after yesterday's win over Leeds in the Guinness Premiership, Sarries director of rugby Brendan Venter sang the praises of his captain.

Venter said: "I want Steve Borthwick above any lock in the Premiership. I wouldn't swap him for anybody in the Premiership. I just find it amazing that people can think Steve's not good enough to play for England. I talk about studying the videos. I don't talk from an emotional point of view.

"If you look at the video you will see he is one of the players that got stuck in. When the going got tough and things got difficult he was the first person in this team to put his hands up. I build my team around Steve Borthwick. If I had 15 Steve Borthwicks it would just be amazing."