The England squad selected for the 2017 Six Nations may have a settled feel but Eddie Jones is not a man who hands out automatic season tickets. Heaven help the player – or captain – who shows even a glimmer of complacency, with Jones not yet convinced he has sufficient on-field leaders to steer the national team to 2019 World Cup glory.
For now Hartley, when fit and available, remains his captain but, as he told the Guardian this week, Jones is intensifying his search for others capable of assuming control from the Northampton hooker in the not-too-distant future. The 34 names in the squad include several who have captained their club sides but the head coach wants more individuals with the force of character “to make myself redundant”.
It is Jones’s firm belief his team needs a host of them, just as Clive Woodward’s 2003 side ultimately possessed. “That’s one of our great keys going forward,” said the Australian, who intends to finalise his matchday 23 for the opening Six Nations game against France during next week’s training camp in Portugal. “When we’ve got 10 players like that we’ll be in a position to win the World Cup. We’re not there at the moment but we’ll get there.”
The leading candidates, in no particular order, to navigate England into the 2019 tournament are probably Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola, with Jones keenly aware that, historically, World Cup-winning captains – Richie McCaw, John Smit, Martin Johnson, John Eales, Francois Pienaar – are a breed apart. All three, though, are pretty young and have yet to lead out their country at Test level.
Jones is wary of the hugely talented Itoje in particular falling victim to “too much, too soon” syndrome and believes the majority of hot-housed modern academy players, in rugby and other sports, struggle to think for themselves. “It’s a reality of elite sport now. A guy was telling me the other day about his 13-year-old son who is in a football academy. Every day he is told what to do, what to wear, when to brush his teeth, when to comb his hair – he’s told everything.
“The father wants the son to buck the system but he can’t because that’s the way people are educated to play elite sport now. It happens in rugby to a lesser extent. You have to find ways of overcoming it because otherwise you end up with teams that can’t make decisions.”
The other chief prerequisite is an instant willingness to tell a team-mate, if required, to pull his finger out. “What is being a leader?” asked Jones rhetorically. “Being a leader means every day you rock up to training and you get on with the job. And if the guy next to you is not doing it properly you tell him he’s not doing it properly.
“Look back to the 2003 team. How many of those blokes had to be told what to do? Hill, Dallaglio, Back, Johnson, Thompson, Dawson, Wilkinson, Greenwood … you had players who could just get on with the job. These days young people don’t like calling other people out. It’s not how people are educated now. I don’t see it as a major problem but I see it as an issue that we need to deal with.”
With the former national captain Chris Robshaw and the forceful Vunipola missing through injury, it is not hard to see why Jones is so keen for the “very unusual” Hartley to start against France, despite the latter having played no competitive rugby since before Christmas. Without his valued captaincy input, however, Hartley might well be struggling to hold off Jamie George, Tommy Taylor and Luke Cowan-Dickie and Jones has made it clear that nothing is forever.
“He’s got to captain and play well, if he does that then he’s in a good position to retain [the job] and if he doesn’t then he won’t be. The captaincy, like the jersey, isn’t a permanent position. No one owns the jersey, no one owns their position in the team, it’s something you borrow and something you’ve got to cherish. Nothing in our team is permanent. We’re not like a club team where the players sign contracts and they’re guaranteed to be in the squad for a certain period of time. You get people coming through and you get people dropping off. I know everyone loves Itoje and, if he comes through and develops, he could be a candidate but he’s certainly not at the moment.”
Regardless of whether Joe Marler and George Kruis are passed fully fit for the opening weekend of the tournament, England will also be expected to kick off against the French with a proper rattle. Jones, who has Itoje, Anthony Watson, Jack Nowell and James Haskell all back available having missed the autumn Tests, is challenging his team to be “daring” and “proactive” and is seeking to add more subtlety behind the scrum too.
The hiring of “eye coach” Dr Sherylle Calder to enhance the team’s hand-eye coordination is another part of that process and, if the go-faster recipe works, Jones believes the Lions will come calling. “If they play well for England they’re going to get selected for the Lions,” he said, having included only three uncapped players in the props Ellis Genge and Nathan Catt and Saracens’ utility back Alex Lozowski. “If England win the Six Nations and play good rugby then [Warren] Gatland has to pick our players.”
England’s 34-man Six Nations squad:
Forwards: N Catt (Bath), J Clifford (Harlequins), D Cole (Leicester), C Ewels (Bath), E Genge (Leicester), J George (Saracens), T Harrison (Northampton), D Hartley (Northampton), J Haskell, N Hughes (both Wasps), M Itoje, G Kruis (both Saracens), J Launchbury (Wasps), C Lawes (Northampton), J Marler (Harlequins), M Mullan (Wasps), K Sinckler (Harlequins), T Taylor (Wasps), M Williams (Leicester), T Wood (Northampton). Backs: M Brown, D Care (both Harlequins), E Daly (Wasps), O Farrell (Saracens), G Ford, J Joseph (Bath), A Lozowski (Saracens), J May (Gloucester), J Nowell, H Slade (both Exeter), B Te’o (Worcester), A Watson (Bath), M Yarde (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester).
