England are confident Ben Spencer can handle a baptism of fire should he make his World Cup debut in the final against South Africa. Spencer arrived at England’s hotel in Tokyo on Monday and immediately set about getting up to speed, having replaced the injured Willi Heinz in the squad.
Heinz was ruled out of the final with a hamstring injury sustained in the closing stages of Saturday’s semi-final victory over New Zealand. Eddie Jones revealed Heinz was in tears in the dressing room and that the Gloucester scrum-half will remain with the squad and lend his support to Spencer.
Jones admitted he took a risk when selecting only two scrum-halves in his squad in August and as a result, Spencer is almost certain to be on the bench against the Springboks to provide back-up for Ben Youngs.
Jones moved quickly to get the 27-year-old, who had been due to start for Saracens against Leicester, on a flight to Japan, but he has only three caps as a replacement to his name – the most recent in March – and has never tasted victory with England. He was part of England’s wider training squad over the summer and did go on last year’s tour of South Africa, winning his first and second caps in the defeats in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.
He does not have long to acclimatise before Saturday’s final in Yokohama but Jones has repeatedly mentioned the former All Black Stephen Donald, who was seconded at short notice to New Zealand’s 2011 squad and kicked the decisive penalty in the final against France.
Spencer was reminded of that Cinderella story after arriving in Japan. Donald was memorably fishing when he got the call from Graham Henry, then New Zealand coach, to answer an injury crisis at fly-half. He was an unused replacement in the semi-final but when Aaron Cruden became the third New Zealand fly-half to suffer an injury, Donald, barely able to fit into his jersey, came on in the 34th minute and kicked his side’s only penalty in the 8-7 win that sealed the All Blacks’ first World Cup crown in 24 years.
“Ben will have a shirt that fits him, so that’s one significant difference,” Jones said. “And he hasn’t been fishing, so that’s another difference! It’s a great opportunity for the kid, he’s excited about it. He’s been around the team. I was just talking about how he played South Africa in June in 2018 Ben was part of that squad, it’s an opportunity for him to come in and do his job.
“It is just a great opportunity ahead of him. He has come into the squad and has got to learn a few new things. Willi will help him and Benny will help him with that. He has just got to learn a little bit more in the early part of the week and get himself physically and mentally ready.”
Jones also paid tribute to Heinz, who emerged as a late contender for England’s World Cup squad towards the end of the season, leapfrogging Danny Care, Dan Robson and Spencer in the pecking order. “The great thing is Willi wanted to stay and we wanted him to stay, so it wasn’t a hard discussion,” the coach said. “It’s like when you want to get married. If the lady wants to marry you and you offer to marry, it’s a pretty easy conversation. He’s just a great bloke. Even now he’s already started to mentor Ben Spencer.”
