Heading towards Twickenham is a backline stuffed with as much talent as any in the world. Pace, agility, height, strength, variety, class … they have it all. Unfortunately for Stuart Lancaster the men in question will be clad in gold. Somehow, between now and next September when Australia return for their crucial World Cup pool match against the host nation, England need to narrow the gap in attacking potency.
Even Lancaster is conceding as much, making little attempt to spare the feelings of those who have featured over the past month. “That backline combination is going to be thought about a lot over the next six to 12 months, without a doubt,” said the head coach, all too aware England are still hunting a midfield combination capable of giving the rest of the world sleepless nights.
Some pieces of the familiar puzzle are starting to fall into place. George Ford will start at 10 against Australia and, injuries permitting, looks set to retain the fly-half jersey for the foreseeable future. That changes the dynamic at 12 and 13 in the short and longer terms. It increasingly looks as if the diminutive Kyle Eastmond, who started against New Zealand and South Africa, has had his chances. As and when Manu Tuilagi is fit, he will surely return at 13. Which makes this weekend a monumental one for Billy Twelvetrees. Assuming he starts on Saturday, as now appears likely, his chances of making the World Cup squad could well hinge on the subsequent 80 minutes.
The Gloucester player has been discarded once following a costly loose pass that helped New Zealand wriggle off the hook at Dunedin in June. In that same game, though, he was outstanding for the first section as England took the game to the All Blacks despite Twelvetrees not having played for six weeks because of injury.
At his best he offers the passing, kicking and running threat which England crave at 12, if not quite the ramrod defence of Owen Farrell. With Ford also keeping the opposition midfield guessing, it should help those outside him such as the lightning-quick Anthony Watson and Jonny May.
Suddenly, with Tuilagi back in the frame and maybe even Sam Burgess as a bench candidate, England would have the makings of a backline capable of causing some damage, particularly if Exeter’s Henry Slade keeps developing at his current rate.
With Brad Barritt and Luther Burrell also candidates for the 13 jersey – with insufficient training time to reshuffle the entire XV it would make sense on Saturday to retain Barritt as defensive captain to neuter the Wallabies’ midfield strength – an awful lot boils down to whether Twelvetrees can demonstrate the consistency that has hitherto been Farrell’s great strength.
Ideally, with fewer than 300 days to go until the World Cup kicks off, Lancaster would love not to be still guessing about such things. As things have turned out, he has no option. “I still think we’re learning about some players. In an ideal world you’d be talking about players with 30-40 caps and you’d have gone through all the ups and downs of introductions to international rugby. When you’re dealing with guys who only have 10 caps or fewer you’re always learning. We don’t have the level of experience in our backline that other countries have.”
The good news is that in the 20-year-old Watson England have a genuine game-buster in the making. “The big step forward for me in the last two or three weeks has been those wing slots. Anthony has taken his opportunity really well … he’s got all the physical attributes, he’s athletic, he’s quick, he’s got good footwork and he’s good in the air.”
All that was missing was the confidence to go with it. “When we picked the EPS squad last month, he was selected behind Semesa Rokoduguni,” Lancaster said. “That rattled him because it was the first time in his career he hadn’t been picked. That was the tipping point. He realised that if he wanted to be in this team he needed to have some presence and his personality had to come out. Now it has done. That’s been the most pleasing bit.”
Victory on Saturday, though, is all that counts now. England would settle for a 3-0 win and a grinding forward-based performance; attractive defeats are no good to them. Lancaster saw enough in Australia’s defeat against Ireland to suspect it will not be that easy.
“We need to make sure we play the game in the right areas of the field, without a doubt. If you give the Australians too much loose ball before you know it they are running under the posts. Defensively it’s going to be a big game for us. We’ll definitely be in trouble if we play the way we did early on against Samoa.”
