Eddie Jones was not pulling a flanker when he said, after revealing his England squad for the autumn internationals at Twickenham, that he was considering handing Maro Itoje the No7 jersey. Itoje’s brief international career has been spent in the second row, but he has played for Saracens at blindside flanker, the position he occupied when he made his debut for the club, and moving him into James Haskell’s position would give Jones the option of pairing George Kruis and Joe Launchbury in the second row.
England do not have an openside flanker in the mould of Richie McCaw, Sam Cane or Sam Warburton but Jones believes that the rigid job descriptions of previous times count little in an era when numbers on the backs of players become blurred after a couple of phases.
“At the moment we have Sam Jones and Mike Williams as potential 7s and, having watched the Premiership matches very closely this season, I cannot find anyone else who fits the bill,” says Jones. “Williams is not playing there for Leicester, but Haskell does not for his club, Wasps.
“It is about maximising your resources. If you do not have a Richie McCaw or a George Smith, you come unstuck if you try to copy that system, as we did in the third Test in Australia when we wanted Teimana Harrison to play that role and he was not able to at that stage of his career. We moved Maro and played him left and right with Chris Robshaw and that remains a definite possibility looking ahead.
“There is no right and wrong way; you have to work out what suits your team. Very few of the Premiership clubs operate with a traditional 7. While, in the old days, you had forwards playing here and backs playing there, after two or three phases now it is all mixed up. In the forward pack you want three players who are capable of passing the ball and five who can smash their way over the gainline and get the opposition moving backwards.”
England gather in Brighton on Sunday with Jones hoping that injury problems have peaked. Owen Farrell has yet to play this season, Haskell and Jack Clifford have been ruled out of the autumn series, and Manu Tuilagi, Jonathan Joseph and the team’s captain, Dylan Hartley, have missed the past three rounds of the Premiership.
“Missing players is nothing to be frightened of,” said Jones. “Manu’s latest injury is not a concern because it is not something we can control. When he is fit, I will be pleased to have the opportunity to select him. If not, we will pick other players.”
Would he be worried at losing the leadership of Hartley and Farrell? “Not at all,” he replied. “We would find if other leaders stepped up. It is a fantastic opportunity, nothing to be frightened of. And we do have other leaders, I am 100% sure of that, although I do not have to consider yet who would be captain.”
One player Jones was unable to consider for the squad was the Saracens wing Chris Ashton, who is serving a 13-week suspension for biting the Northampton prop Alex Waller during the Premiership match at Allianz Park last month, his second long lay-off of the year.
“You cannot endorse any sort of behaviour like that,” said Jones. “He was found guilty and has been punished. I sent him a text the other day saying if you play well when you come back I will consider you. I am not frustrated by it; that is just the choice he made. He needs to find a good restaurant in Barnet so he is not hungry.”
