The Rugby World Cup is barely a fortnight away but England are still not entirely sure whom to pick in the most pivotal position of the lot. While George Ford will remain in situ for Saturday’s final warm-up fixture against Ireland the conspicuous praise showered on his fly-half rival Owen Farrell by the head coach, Stuart Lancaster, strongly implied the tussle for the No10 jersey is far from over.
Ford, outstanding during last season’s Six Nations when his team-mate was injured, did not have his best or most accurate game behind a perspiring pack in Paris and Farrell’s efforts in training have been described by Lancaster as “the best I’ve seen from him”. If Ford were to endure another lean afternoon at Twickenham it could yet be Farrell who starts against Fiji on the World Cup’s opening night.
All kinds of tactical factors will also need to be considered, with Ford’s club understanding with his Bath colleague Jonathan Joseph among them, but Lancaster stopped a long way short of ruling out a future switch at No10. “It’s tight. George is in position at the moment but Owen has been training exceptionally well. He is back to his very best for me. His defence, his game management and his attacking game have been the best I’ve seen it. He is pushing hard.
“I don’t need to say anything to George because he trains against Owen day in day out. We’ve a lot of faith in George because he’s been exceptional for us but this is another big game for him. Ireland have a very good kicking game and our kicking game needs to be spot on.”
Ford, by the sound of it, has received the message loud and clear: “Everyone wants to start but the good thing about this squad is there are no selfish players in it. I have to raise my game but that’s a great position to be in. You always want someone pushing you.”
While healthy competition is never a bad thing the debate hardly disproves Warren Gatland’s suggestion that England are less settled than they might like going into the 2015 tournament. Lancaster is determined not to be dragged into a public slanging match with his Wales counterpart but his blunt response – “I don’t recognise that” when asked whether England are undecided on both how and whom they want to play – told its own story.
The solution, as ever, is tantalisingly simple. If England can put in a winning performance this weekend against smart opposition, then all manner of doubts and potential issues will melt away at a psychologically important moment. Lancaster knows this, which is why he has stuffed his reshuffled pack with as much lineout expertise as he can muster. Geoff Parling is back to run the lineout which has been misfiring too often for comfort, while the returning Tom Wood offers further aerial expertise against opponents who kicked the ball 44 times in their Six Nations win over England in Dublin earlier this year.
Ben Morgan will start at No8 as England do their best to ensure the Gloucester forward is fully up to speed when the real stuff comes round and fingers will be similarly crossed in midfield where Brad Barritt and Joseph will become the 13th different centre combination to start a Test under Lancaster.
The management insist the pair have trained well together for the past fortnight but have not exactly reached Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu levels of familiarity. It would have been less problematic had Barritt not missed the Six Nations but Lancaster, who will doubtless introduce Sam Burgess for his second cap off the bench at some stage, is confident both players will respond positively.
“We should expect a strong performance from both. That combination of Ford, Barritt and Joseph have trained together consistently for two weeks now. It’s not as if we have suddenly put them together. The other real asset Brad has is the quality of his defence. We didn’t quite get our defence right during the Six Nations. We scored 18 tries but we conceded too many and Brad will bring that defensive steel.”
Much interest will also focus around the hooker position, where Jamie George is among five Saracens players on the eight-man bench. England’s two main Pool A rivals, Wales and Australia, have both opted to take only two hookers to the World Cup but Lancaster continues to insist they are taking an undue risk.
“I certainly wouldn’t have changed what we’ve done, no chance,” he said, raising the question of whether tournament regulations might potentially be breached. “I didn’t want to take that risk for the country. If we’d entered our opening game against Fiji with one suspended player and two fit players, and one of those fit players became injured during the course of Thursday and Friday, none of our props could cover hooker. I suspect we’d then be in a situation where we’re in breach of tournament regulations. You have to have sufficient cover in the front row to make sure you have all bases covered.”
