Eddie Jones is confident Denny Solomona will be fit to win his first cap in Argentina and has challenged the youngsters in his squad to oust England’s British & Irish Lions for good.
Jones rated Solomona as doubtful for the tour less than two weeks ago after he suffered a foot strain in Brighton but he has joined up with the England squad who leave for Argentina on Monday. Injuries to Tommy Taylor and Nick Schonert have taken the number of players unavailable to 30 but Jones believes Solomona is winning his race. “He’s going well, trained well yesterday with no repercussions so he’s progressing nicely. We expect him to go on tour,” said Jones, who has kept Marland Yarde on standby at England’s Teddington base.
Solomona is one of 18 uncapped players in 32-man squad but has caught Jones’s eye since his controversial move from rugby league in December. Jones has experience working with league converts, having overseen the emergence of Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri for Australia.
“Certainly Denny’s got a nice feel for the game – he can sniff out a try and he can score a try,” Jones said. “He does that at training now – he’s scored a couple of cracking tries where he just sees the opportunity, takes it and makes the right decision. He’s got enough gas to turn that opportunity into points and that’s the beauty of him.
“He’s going to have to learn a lot of work off the ball because the role of a winger in rugby union compared to rugby league is massively different in terms of covering the back field. That takes time. Jonny May is still learning, he’s in kindergarten, he’s still got his short pants on because it’s hard.”
Owing to the number of new faces in the squad, Jones has split the 32 into four teams of eight and pitted them against each other in different facets of training as well as for a quiz on Wednesday night, written by Wayne Barnes, to bring the players up to speed on the new laws being trialled by World Rugby.
Dylan Hartley’s team won because, according to Jones, “he had George Ford so he had a bit of a head start”, but the team-bonding benefits are part of the coach’s plan to take his team to the next level.
“What I see is this young squad of players developing with a few older guys that at the end of the Argentina tour, we come home 2-0 and with guys who are potentially better than those away with the Lions,” Jones said. “That might seem ridiculous but why not, who says you can’t do it?
“When the Lions come back I want them to feel the difference in the team, to feel it has changed. I want the Lions to be shocked. Some of the training we are doing has eclipsed what we did in the Six Nations – the level of training.”
Jones has been particularly impressed with the Bath lock Charlie Ewels but while England have a wealth of second-rows – Maro Itoje, George Kruis and Courtney Lawes are all away with the Lions – Jones highlighted that area as one with more room for improvement.
He added: “How many England locks would get into the All Blacks side? To beat them at the World Cup we are going to have five or six players in the world XV and to get in the world XV you have got to get in the All Blacks side because they are the best team in the world. We have got at least two at this stage – we are going in the right direction but I would say the All Blacks have at least six, maybe seven.”
Chris Robshaw, Nathan Hughes and Sam Underhill are being monitored for ankle, neck and shoulder injuries respectively but Jones is confident all three will make the tour.
