By the time Stuart Lancaster announces his Rugby World Cup squad of 31 on Thursday afternoon even those left out will be grateful. Since they checked into camp in June those on the periphery have been endlessly urged to prove their worth, like overgrown GCSE students locked into an endless cycle of exams and classroom assessments. At least the waiting is now over.
The long, draining weeks of intense physical conditioning and stress-testing, however, have been entirely deliberate. For all that Lancaster and his fellow coaches want individual game-breakers their ultimate goal is an unshakable collective strength once the tournament commences on 18 September. Even if the list of 31 does not contain as many World XV candidates as Lancaster would like, it is designed not to shrink under pressure.
It could have been stronger still: Manu Tuilagi, Dylan Hartley, Tom Croft, Steffon Armitage, Danny Cipriani and Dave Ewers would all have made their opponents think twice, if not thrice.
Circumstances, however, have decreed otherwise and nailing down the last few planks on the deck of HMS Lancaster has also been trickier than expected. Sir Clive Woodward still winces at the omission of Graham Rowntree from his 2003 squad, Simon Shaw made it only as a replacement; Mike Tindall, Charlie Hodgson, Cipriani and Toby Flood missed out in 2007 and Riki Flutey was an unlucky absentee four years ago. There are about to be a couple more.
To declare, as the coaches have done, that selection hinged on the final session of an endless pre-tournament summer emphasised that match fitness (or the lack of it) was a vital prerequisite. Passengers are no use at a World Cup, which is why Ben Morgan and Alex Corbisiero have been reeled in this month by Nick Easter and Kieran Brookes respectively. On past Test form the aforementioned pair would be valuable additions but Corbisiero has not started a test for England since 2012 and Morgan is still feeling his way back from a broken leg sustained in January.
Given he is potentially England’s best loosehead scrummager, the temptation to take a punt on Corbisiero might still have been considerable had Brookes not grasped his chance with alacrity. Lancaster at least still has the option of sending both Corbisiero and Morgan back to their clubs to be summoned when or if required.
That leaves only two vacancies, at lock and centre, involving players unlikely to make the starting lineup on a regular basis. George Kruis versus Dave Attwood is another hairline call that boils down as much to what the management have seen in training over the past two months as their Test CVs. Kruis, the younger man by three years, did his cause no harm opposite Attwood in the Premiership final last May and is nimbler around the park. The Bath man can be as good as anyone when the mood takes him but 20 handy minutes off the bench in Paris may not prove enough.
All of which has left Sam Burgess and Luther Burrell scrapping for the final seat on the bus. Henry Slade played so well on his Twickenham debut against France that Lancaster can hardly exclude him and there is little doubt Andy Farrell, England’s backs coach, would love to have Burgess involved too. “The first game was not a shock to us,” emphasised Farrell, referring to the Bath player’s forceful defensive effort against France at Twickenham. “We have got to back our judgment. We can’t hide away from the fact of what we have seen in the last 10 weeks and what a certain individual will bring to the group.
“It has to be what you’ve learned about the person, his character, his skill levels, his leadership within the group. It has to be a wide range of scenarios. You can’t just come down to 20 minutes of rugby. The group want to win the World Cup and we owe it to them to make sure that selection is right for everyone in the squad.”
If this sounds suspiciously like a party political broadcast on behalf of the Slammin’ Sam Appreciation Party it almost certainly is.
Lancaster’s initial reluctance to pick two centres with a solitary cap apiece would appear to have eased – “I didn’t say I couldn’t pick both of them. I said it would be a big step” – and there is no question Slade and Burgess both have a bit of X-factor about them. England, ultimately, crave a squad that adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
Probable England Rugby World Cup squad
Backs Mike Brown (Harlequins), Alex Goode (Saracens), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), Jonny May (Gloucester), Anthony Watson (Bath), Brad Barritt (Saracens), Sam Burgess (Bath), Jonathan Joseph (Bath), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Bath), Danny Care (Harlequins), Ben Youngs (Leicester), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens). Forwards Jamie George (Saracens), Rob Webber (Bath), Tom Youngs (Leicester), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Kieran Brookes (Northampton), Dan Cole (Leicester), David Wilson (Bath), George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton), Geoff Parling (Exeter Chiefs), James Haskell (Wasps), Tom Wood (Northampton), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, captain), Nick Easter (Harlequins), Billy Vunipola (Saracens).
