Eddie Jones is poised to reshuffle his unbeaten England team for the home game against Italy, with Mako Vunipola and Anthony Watson close to returning to the Six Nations fray. Elliot Daly will also be considered at full-back, as Jones looks to take the Azzurri “to the cleaners” at Twickenham a week on Sunday.
With England having won 16 consecutive Tests, and still in contention for a second successive grand slam following Saturday’s dramatic 21-16 win over Wales in Cardiff, Jones is keen to add a fresh dimension to their attacking game and may promote Ben Te’o, James Haskell, Jamie George and Danny Care, all of whom have impressed off the bench.
Vunipola’s ball-carrying has been missed in his absence with a knee injury, sustained against Sale just before Christmas, and Watson has not played Test rugby since last summer because of a broken jaw and hamstring problems. The former will be released to play for Saracens on Friday with a view to reclaiming a bench spot against Italy and his brother Billy could be a candidate for England’s final game, against Ireland in Dublin.
Jones, either way, is seeking a more expansive approach aimed at running a relatively pedestrian Italy side off their feet and is considering a new-look midfield, with the in-form Te’o and Saracens’ Alex Lozowski among his options: “One of the things I would like to do is develop multiple ways we can play. This is all about building a plan for the 2019 World Cup … it will be a bit of fun.”
Inevitably there will also be conjecture about a switch at hooker with the captain, Dylan Hartley, having been withdrawn in the 47th minute of the Wales game. Hartley attempted to locate the positives – “I don’t think it was early … I talked to Eddie and he said I captained the side brilliantly this week” – but George must be increasingly close to starting.
In that event Owen Farrell would be a contender for the captaincy, ably supported by his fellow Saracens player Maro Itoje, who is performing multiple roles for his country. Itoje, despite notionally playing at flanker against Wales, also packed down in the second-row after Jones, while struggling to sleep earlier in the week, came up with the rare dual plan.
The Australian clearly relished the Cardiff outcome, with the matchday experience proving markedly different to his previous visits with Australia. “I noticed driving in on the bus that people were giving us the finger. When you come here with the Wallabies they’re normally waving. I thought I’d give them a sign back but then thought I’d better not.”
Jones also suggested he was always confident England would overhaul Wales, even before Daly’s 76th-minute match-winning try. “We train to win those last 20 minutes and back ourselves. Wales were the benchmark team in Europe for winning games in the last 20 minutes. Now we’ve beaten them three times in a row maybe we deserve that title.”
His next objective is ensuring England, the Six Nations leaders after Scotland’s defeat in France, do not just rely on late tries. “We’re disappointed because we still haven’t played as well as we can,” he added. “We’d love to play a really good game of rugby and that might be against Italy in two weeks’ time. They can be quite a niggly side and make the game pretty horrible.”
