Amid the blizzard of names – 82 in all – on the four-page press release at Twickenham there was no obscuring the overriding message: Eddie Jones wants his England team to aim higher this winter and the seven uncapped players who will attend the upcoming training camp in Brighton are simply the tip of the iceberg. Getting into Jones’s squad, never mind the starting XV, is becoming tougher by the week.
Perhaps that should always be true in a country with England’s playing numbers but the list of those left out in the cold is still striking. When none of Danny Cipriani, Tom Wood, Kieran Brookes, Dave Attwood, Tom Youngs, Joe Simpson and Luther Burrell can break into the latest EPS squad, comprising the best 45 players in the country, it is a pretty fair indication of increasing depth.
The biggest winners, for now at least, are a trio of forceful back-row forwards in Mike Williams, Nathan Hughes and Sam Jones, all of whom are among the 37 players summoned to Brighton to crank things up training-wise before the autumn Test series. Eddie Jones is also clearly a fan of Sale’s Josh Beaumont, picked as a lock rather than a No8, with Wasps’ scrum-half Dan Robson, Worcester’s Ben Te’o and the Harlequins centre Joe Marchant completing the uncapped up-and-comers.
The future also looks promising for Tommy Taylor, Ben Spencer and Alex Lozowski who, along with Sam Jones, have been promoted from outside the preliminary squad named by Jones in the summer. There are injury-prompted call-ups, too, for Gloucester’s Ben Morgan, not seen since England’s 2015 World Cup campaign, and Exeter’s Ollie Devoto but the absence of Cipriani, nowhere to be seen despite Wasps’ fine start to the season, remains conspicuous.
Jones admitted the phone call he made to the 28-year-old Cipriani had been one of a number of “difficult” conversations. “Some players can only be a number one,” explained Jones. “Look, he’s a talented player but I said it quite clearly to him: at the moment he’s not one or two in England in terms of stand-offs. He’s got to be able to show he can be number one. I don’t see him as a player who comes in the squad as a number three or four player … he likes to be the main man. And when he plays well enough to be number one he’ll be in the squad.”
Even if Owen Farrell fails to recover from his current back problems, therefore, Jones will rely on Henry Slade and Alex Goode for fly-half cover behind George Ford, with the promising Lozowski not yet deemed ready for Test blooding. There is clearly a part of Jones that is not yet convinced Cipriani is totally reliable. “I don’t judge any player just as a rugby player. I’m a selector. I select the team that can work together. So I’m looking at every aspect of how they behave, I’m looking at how they train, how they interact with players and coaches. Am I judging them just on rugby? Of course I’m not, but that’s the same for every player.”
Of more immediate urgency is to find the right men to start against South Africa at openside flanker and 12, with James Haskell and Manu Tuilagi still on the long-term casualty list. With Northampton’s Teimana Harrison also failing to make the EPS squad, it seems Williams and Wasps’ Sam Jones are vying to wear seven despite the fact both are seen as blindside specialists by their clubs.
The 24-year-old Jones is slightly less eye-catching than Leicester’s Williams but, as his director of rugby, Dai Young, has pointed out, that never held Richard Hill back. The former Wallaby flanker George Smith also rates him highly as a physical, aggressive presence. “He’s probably one of the most destructive tacklers in the league at the moment,” confirmed Jones. “That gives him the opportunity to play Test rugby because he brings something different to the table.”
The flip side is that England are getting no closer to fielding the classic ground-hogging seven who might bring extra attacking balance. The teenaged Will Evans might ultimately be that man but Jones freely admits he is cutting his cloth from the currently available material. Ultimately he wants England to play in different ways, which also means identifying a second playmaker and kicker at 12 rather than endless bashers. So you’ve got a Plan B, Eddie? “I’ve got a Plan B, C, D and E, mate.”
The Australian coach, who has recruited Rory Teague from England Under-20s to work as a part-time skills coach and invited judo’s Kate Howey and JP Bell to help the squad’s mauling techniques, had another decent quip lined up when asked whether he might consider staying on with England after 2019. “If we lose against South Africa people will be saying: ‘Why have we employed this Australian?’ There won’t be any discussion about 2019. If we don’t deliver the only thing they’ll be asking me is ‘What time does your flight leave?’”
Plotting their career graphs into the distant future, in other words, is not a game seasoned national coaches bother to play for long. “Look at José Mourinho after three games,” continued Jones. “Everyone thought he was going to change Manchester United; two games later they’re saying he’s made all these mistakes. That’s the life we live; I understand that.” He also instinctively knows how best to keep players on their toes.
England training squad
Forwards Josh Beaumont (Sale Sharks); Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers); Jamie George (Saracens); Teimana Harrison (Northampton Saints) injury replacement for James Haskell (Wasps); Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints); Paul Hill (Northampton Saints); Nathan Hughes (Wasps); Maro Itoje (Saracens); Sam Jones (Wasps); George Kruis (Saracens); Joe Launchbury (Wasps); Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints); Joe Marler (Harlequins); Ben Morgan (Gloucester) injury replacement for Jack Clifford (Harlequins); Chris Robshaw (Harlequins); Tommy Taylor (Wasps); Billy Vunipola (Saracens); Mako Vunipola (Saracens); Mike Williams (Leicester Tigers);
Backs Mike Brown (Harlequins); Danny Care (Harlequins); Elliot Daly (Wasps); Ollie Devoto (Exeter) injury replacement for Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers); Owen Farrell (Saracens); George Ford (Bath); Alex Goode (Saracens); Jonathan Joseph (Bath); Joe Marchant (Harlequins); Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs); Dan Robson (Wasps); Semesa Rokoduguni (Bath Rugby); Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs); Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors); Anthony Watson (Bath); Marland Yarde (Harlequins) injury replacement for Jonny May (Gloucester); Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
