For every England rugby coach there are three steps to heaven: identify the best players, decide how to harness their collective talents and then pursue every available avenue to ensure they peak when it really matters. With 19 wins in his first 20 games in charge, Eddie Jones has made a confident start on the rocky ascent towards 2019, and his 33-man training squad for next week’s camp in Oxford represents the next phase of that climb.
Even three players deemed good enough to be 2017 British & Irish Lions – Jonathan Joseph, Kyle Sinckler and James Haskell – find themselves outside a deliberately slimmed-down squad, with the recently sidelined George Kruis also omitted. Admittedly it is “only” a training camp but, injuries permitting, Jones concedes those named will have “a head start” in terms of selection for England’s first Test against Argentina on 11 November. The subliminal message is self-explanatory: there will be no short cuts into the 31-strong squad for Japan in two years’ time.
What the approach will be for the subsequent two Tests against Australia and Samoa is less clear, with Jones adamant he has yet to make his mind up on precisely how many of his leading men will feature in all three autumn fixtures. The player-welfare implications for England’s Lions players will need to be factored in and negotiations are continuing with the Premiership clubs over whether those rested may also be excused from club duty.
It may also suit all parties if one or two fringe candidates were released to represent the Barbarians against New Zealand on 4 November. Either way, Jones sounds like a man who has already done the bulk of his experimenting and intends to finish dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s between now and Christmas.
This also extends to how England intend to play in the future, with tin hats advisable for those suggesting within Jones’s earshot that copying the All Blacks’ attractive style is the way forward.
Courting neutral popularity has never been Jones’s priority and he is hardly about to start now. “Spending your whole life on your iPhone is popular but it doesn’t mean it’s right,” he said. “There’s a certain sort of rugby we need to play to win the World Cup and it’s not going to be popular rugby. We’ll play the rugby that suits us. We don’t need to copy New Zealand.”
In virtually the same breath, it should be said, he could be heard pining for a game-breaker akin to the All Blacks’ Nehe Milner-Skudder, who could offer him something completely different but, in Jones’s mind, 80% of his 2019 squad already appears pretty much settled. The remaining 20% – in effect only six or seven players – will need to offer something he does not feel he already possesses.
Into that category, you might imagine, would come the barrelling Sinckler but Jones clearly does not want the Harlequins man getting ahead of himself and, for the time being, has opted instead for the stronger set-piece presence of Exeter’s Harry Williams. It is a similar story with Joseph, whom Warren Gatland decided he simply had to pick for the Lions tour. Jones favours the opposite approach: anyone perceived not to be busting a gut at club level every week is potentially dispensable. “Some guys need to work on their games,” the Australian added brusquely. “We’ve had those discussions with them.”
Haskell might consider himself slightly unfortunate given he has only just returned from finger surgery, but no one will be more keenly aware that the back-row landscape is rapidly shifting. England now have two significantly younger No7s – Bath’s Sam Underhill and Sale’s Tom Curry – whom Jones rightly senses have “something about them”.
With another contender, Exeter’s Sam Simmonds, also earning a conspicuous namecheck as a possible Test openside of the future, the 32-year-old Haskell is going to have to dig deep to see off the young pups. “Hask knows what he’s got to do and I know he’s going to attend to that very seriously,” said Jones. “We’ve been quite fortunate with the young guys coming through and they’re challenging the establishment.”
Among those also being pushed to up the ante further is Newcastle’s Mark Wilson, an impressive tourist in Argentina during June, while the fit-again Jack Clifford is also nowhere to be seen. Things are hotting up in other forward areas, too, with Bath’s Tom Dunn and Saracens’ Nick Isiekwe being invited to stake a claim in the absence of the injured Luke Cowan-Dickie and Kruis, only just back for Saracens against Sale this weekend following an ankle strain.
Behind the scrum there is yet more high-profile recognition for the exciting 18-year-old Quins fly-half Marcus Smith while Northampton’s versatile new signing Piers Francis offers a further midfield option despite having yet to make his Premiership debut.
If Manu Tuilagi ever manages to stay fit enough to string together a sequence of games, Joseph starts tearing it up again for Bath or a repentant Denny Solomona gets back into Jones’s good books – “He’s got work to do on his game and maybe on his drinking game as well” – England really will be spoiled for choice.
Even a stalwart like Mike Brown is going to have to up his game at full-back to see off the Lions duo of Anthony Watson and Elliot Daly, whom Jones still regards as a potential starting option at 15. “That’s the great thing, if you look across the squad, there’s real competition,” added Jones, employing another of his favoured cricketing metaphors. “No player can feel like he can just turn up, bowl his 10 overs for 30 runs and be happy. You’ve got to compete and be at your best. The only way we’re going to be the best team in the world is if we’ve got that. That’s what we’re moving towards.”
Jones’s captain, Dylan Hartley, understands the increasing reality better than anyone else as he prepares to resume his rivalry with Jamie George for the starting No2 jersey. “We’ll see how Dylan is at the camp,” Jones said. “He understands that. Every time he comes in it’s like an audition; if he keeps doing the job well he’s got the job for that period of time but he’s got good hookers underneath him biting at his ankles.” Hartley will be into his 34th year by the time of the next World Cup; neither he, nor his colleagues, will conquer that distant summit without doing some seriously hard yards.
