Joe Marler is available for Harlequins’ match with Gloucester on Saturday despite withdrawing from England’s training camp in Bristol for “personal reasons”. The veteran British & Irish Lions prop was due to join Eddie Jones’s 36-man squad on Sunday but pulled out that afternoon and has instead trained with his club.
Although declining to expand on the reason for his absence from England the Quins’ head of rugby, Paul Gustard, revealed that he would be involved in the Premiership trip to Kingsholm this weekend. “Joe made a decision [on missing the England camp]. He’s available for selection for us this weekend,” Gustard said.
Meanwhile, England could yet need the Danny Cipriani’s “X-factor” talent and have not yet ruled the fly-half out of World Cup contention, according to the squad’s attack coach Scott Wisemantel. The Australian believes England will not beat teams such as New Zealand without some midfield craft and says Cipriani has not been written out of the script for 2019.
The Gloucester fly-half was not invited to England’s training camp in Bristol but the management insist they have not lost faith in the playmaker. “Danny is still in the mix,” Wisemantel said. “He’s not here but we only needed two fly-halves as it’s a short camp. By no means is Danny scrapped.
“The guy has got X-factor, he’s got talent. There’s no doubt about it. Teams [such as New Zealand] are going to score points so you have to match it. Penalties probably ain’t going to stack up when they score three tries. John Mitchell as defence coach may debate that, saying maybe we’ll only concede one which would be fantastic, but you do have to look to score tries against them.”
One of Wisemantel’s tasks will be to improve England’s midfield strike threat, regardless of whether Owen Farrell, George Ford or Cipriani wears the No 10 jersey. “It doesn’t matter who’s there at 10 and 12, you need to have the basic skills. You have to be able to catch and pass, otherwise you become a very predictable rugby team and you get picked off.
“We are training the guys up in multiple positions so that they are interchangeable. If you put all your eggs in one basket at this stage, you only need one or two injuries and you are in a bit of strife. It is also about getting the basics right: the simple early catch, the ability to put the ball into space, the ability to run lines. There is not a lot of trickery in what the All Blacks do. They just do the basics really well and they do it consistently.”
Wisemantel is keen to stick with England through the World Cup – “It would be a fantastic opportunity” – but not all the contractual details have been finalised. “England are one of the teams that have the chance to win a World Cup. They’re serious about their work, they’re diligent and they’re good guys. You also look at the players who didn’t come on tour to South Africa in June and what you see in the Premiership now. There are some damn fine footballers.”
The former England assistant coach Graham Rowntree has been appointed as Georgia’s forwards coach through to next year’s World Cup.
