Even by the fluctuating standards of international rugby union, where little stays the same for long, it has been an eventful few days. Maybe that partially explains why England brought forward their team announcement for Saturday’s warmup against France at Twickenham by 72 hours, as if seeking to keep pace with the frenzied state of flux elsewhere.
When New Zealand are beaten by an Australia side who will soon be sharing a pool with England, Ireland rise to second in the world rankings and Argentina upset South Africa in Durban it certainly adds a dash of intrigue to the waiting game being played by all concerned before the World Cup kicks off next month. What felt like a sure thing last week no longer seems quite so predictable.
Stuart Lancaster, understandably, is rather more concerned about England’s preparations than other nations’ but he could hardly avoid the impact made by Australia’s back-row scavengers, David Pocock and Michael Hooper, during Saturday’s win over the All Blacks. If the performance of Wales’s reserves in Cardiff was rather less of a concern, the hard time endured by Richie McCaw and his team-mates at the breakdown in Sydney rang plenty of alarm bells among English fans.
Hence the reason why, having confirmed the selection of four new caps – Sam Burgess, Henry Slade, Calum Clark and Luke Cowan-Dickie – in his list of 23 names to face France on Saturday evening, Lancaster found himself fielding slightly trickier questions about the lurking Wallaby threat.
Chris Robshaw, rubber-stamped as his country’s captain for the tournament, brings a slightly different set of back-row strengths and Lancaster made clear he is relying on the entire team to supply an antidote to the Pocock-Hooper danger.
In the management’s eyes, it is less about fielding a specialist groundhog seven and more a question of collective vigilance. “Stealing ball is the ultimate because you can play off the counterattack,” Lancaster said. “But getting your discipline right at the breakdown is also critical because a lot of penalties are given away there. I’ve seen a lot of penalties given against teams who are over-competing or not getting their technique right.
“In an ideal world you’d have Hooper and Pocock who are pretty good at turning ball over. They are both high-quality players and we are not surprised by how much Australia have developed. But South Africa’s main threat [at the breakdown] comes from Bismarck du Plessis and he’s a hooker. We’ve also got threats across the board … our back row are good, but so are Mako Vunipola, Brad Barritt, Dan Cole and Joe Launchbury.”
As it happens, neither of that quartet, nor indeed Robshaw, will be involved on Saturday, which reveals something about Lancaster’s approach to selection for this particular match. He was at pains to stress a significantly different XV would be representing England against Fiji in the opening fixture on 18 September and made clear that, in several cases, he is waiting for fringe candidates to make a compelling case.
Among those who would dearly love a big game are Kieran Brookes at tight-head prop and Alex Goode at full-back as they seek to edge out David Wilson and Danny Cipriani respectively, while Billy Twelvetrees and Cowan-Dickie will also be bench men on a mission.
The majority of eyes, even so, will inevitably be on Burgess, whose retention at centre ahead of his club-mate Kyle Eastmond remains a lively topic of debate. “Kyle’s a high-quality player; we’ve talked about the areas we feel he needs to work on and I’m sure he’ll get his opportunity again,” Lancaster said.
“They’re all difficult conversations; it was equally hard with Lee Dickson, Matt Mullan, Chris Ashton and Semesa Rokoduguni. But ultimately we’ve been together for five to six weeks and we’ve had a good chance to look at them. We know the type of game we want to play but the door’s not shut on anyone.”
Lancaster, who has underlined that point by invited Ben Foden and Chris Pennell to training this week, has also warned the entire squad not to allow personal ambition to subvert team priorities. He detected the odd warning sign at a training session a fortnight ago and wants no repeat, regardless of any telling substitutions he ends up making.
It will be hard, even so, for Clark – in the squad since 2012 but still uncapped – Slade and Cowan-Dickie to treat this like any other game. If they are going to make the final 31, to be named later this month, this is their best – and potentially only – opportunity to stake their claim.
Times, incidentally, are changing when Exeter supply three players to an England matchday 23 and Leicester none. Geoff Parling was once a Tiger but, following his summer move to Devon, is now officially a Chief.
