If it sounds contradictory when Eddie Jones says England have no world-class players but the best replacements bench in the world, the first two weekends of the Six Nations would appear to support such a claim. England were behind with 10 minutes remaining against France and Wales but on both occasions Jones’s “finishers” ensured the record-breaking winning streak continued.
Measuring the impact of these finishers however is not an exact science. The ledger records Ben Te’o’s try against France but not the added oomph James Haskell brought to the back row against Wales. Instead, statisticians would record the penalty Haskell conceded to allow Wales to restore a five-point lead, but not that in preventing a possible try he kept England within touching distance.
That is not to ignore the statistics. They tell us that while Dylan Hartley made six tackles and five carries in his 46 minutes on the pitch in Cardiff, his replacement, Jamie George surpassed him with 12 and eight. We also know that England under Jones have scored a remarkable 83 more points than their opponents in the last 20 minutes while only once has the opposition outscored them in the final quarter – Wales at Twickenham last March. Fitness is certainly a significant contributing factor, as was the case against France, but it is not the only one. “In training, always against each other, 15-on-15 or 12-on-12, we’ll sub into the starting team and [Eddie] will put us under pressure,” says George, one of the finishers set to be rewarded with a start against Italy a week on Sunday.
“He’ll say: ‘This is the situation, we are two points down with 20 minutes to go … you’ve got a penalty here, how do you go about it.’ He gives us that responsibility, puts us under a lot of pressure and expects us to bring a lot of energy into the game.”
It is one thing having the firepower on the bench, but it is another thing entirely knowing when to use it. Jones made two bold interventions during the summer tour of Australia last summer – replacing Luther Burrell and Teimana Harrison during the first half of the first and third Tests. He was lauded for doing so, for trusting his gut and grasping the nettle with an approach so different to his predecessor Stuart Lancaster, who was accused of making pre-meditated changes too often, particularly during the defeat in Paris in 2014.
Rob Howley faced similar criticism at the weekend. He cannot be blamed for wanting to introduce a player of Taulupe Faletau’s pedigree in the second half but the entire Welsh population woke up on Sunday wanting to know why Ross Moriarty, who was having the game of his young life, was replaced before the hour was up. The stats would suggest Wales were not disadvantaged by having Faletau on the pitch, but who is to say a couple more thunderous hits from Moriarty would not have broken the English dam?
To argue that Jones makes his changes purely on instinct however would be misleading. He said so himself when defending the decision to replace Hartley on Saturday. “Every decision is made on the ability of the player to work,” said Jones. “When they start to drop off – we have parameters for how quickly they get off the ground – and when they start getting slow off the ground we make a change. It’s got nothing to do with anything else.”
Paul Gustard, England’s defence coach, meanwhile, explained before the Wales match that there is method to making changes. “There is a guideline in our heads as to when is the appropriate time to make the substitution,” he said. “Firstly to lift the pace of the game, or secondly to counteract or pre-empt something from the opposition in the analysis of their substitutions, and thirdly, contextually, what does the game need, what do we need, what’s our strength, can we maximise it?”
The mental preparation of the replacement is also paramount so it was interesting to hear Te’o say that during the France match he was “not watching too much. I was trying to get myself ready for when I got on and not get emotionally involved.” It is hard to imagine the partisan Haskell doing the same.
On the other hand, Sam Davies’s father Nigel – the former Wales centre and coach – said he urged his son to study the Italian defence from the bench before he came on at half-time and he duly took the match away from the Azzurri. Or consider the contrasting fortunes of Craig Gilroy, who helped himself to a 12-minute hat-trick from the bench in Rome, and Scotland’s Ali Price who came on for Greig Laidlaw after just 25 minutes in France on Sunday. Price’s was an altogether far harder task than Gilroy’s but he was evidently fired up and his first intervention was to shove Camille Lopez, give away a penalty and run the risk of a yellow card.
Price improved thereafter but Scotland simply could not handle the loss of Laidlaw and a few other key players through injury in Paris. Joe Schmidt has recently said the same about Ireland’s 2015 World Cup exit while Wales’s cupboard was notably bare at the tournament. England, on the other hand, have unquestionably the deepest pool of resources. Jones is setting about developing world-class players for the next World Cup, all the while able to maximise his greatest current strength – his replacements. He may have a headache though, if they show their finishing form from the off against Italy.
