People love rugby for different reasons. For some it is all about the thrill of contact, the comradeship of brave defence or simply the liniment-heavy sniff of battle. Others live for the sight of a wing haring for the corner or a lovely outside break. About the only thing everyone shares is a common yearning for a class No10, someone who can shape and, ultimately, transform a game given a glimpse of time and space.
Barry John, Phil Bennett, Jonathan Davies, Mark Ella and John Rutherford were all subtle kingpins in the era before the game morphed into professional rollerball. But after a period in which too many fly-halves became formulaic controllers there is a hint of a renaissance. Space is at such a premium that no top-level side succeeds consistently without a game-breaker at 10. Methods vary but, as New Zealand have shown, pace and creative vision are back in vogue. To watch Beauden Barrett has been a joy for connoisseurs of playmaking first five-eighths.
Happy to be counted among that number is Nick Evans, who won 16 All Black caps before flying north to Harlequins in 2008. Evans has played with or against the crème de la crème and, but for the great Dan Carter, would have enjoyed a far lengthier Test career. Now 36, he feels the tide is turning back in favour of Barrett-style fly-halves who offer something beyond studious orthodoxy. “I think it is changing. Players are getting bigger and stronger but if you’ve got a 10 who is that quick and can attack tiring forwards it makes a massive difference,” he says. “It creates so many options for everyone else.”
Evans is now cutting his coaching teeth in addition to inspiring Quins, who play Worcester on Saturday and will also celebrate their 150th anniversary with a fixture against the NZ Maori at The Stoop on 16 November. It makes him ideally qualified to identify the perfect modern‑day 10, as well as the English ringmaster best equipped to propel Eddie Jones’s side past New Zealand between now and the 2019 World Cup.
Evans is swift, for example, to identify Jonathan Sexton’s vision, Bernard Foley’s passing and Nicolás Sánchez’s sweet instep as world class, worthy of recognition in any era. And if Evans was picking the England team to face South Africa at Twickenham there would be no hesitation about his fly-half. “I’d go with Owen Farrell. For me, England’s biggest problem is their midfield,” Evans says. “That’s Eddie’s biggest issue. You can’t necessarily fit Owen and George Ford into the team. We [New Zealand] did that in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final against France. Everyone’s playing well, so you try to fit everyone in. It doesn’t work.”
Ford is the incumbent, seen as having a more positive outlook and a cuter touch than his rival, if not the same warrior persona and goalkicking accuracy. Evans does not agree. He predicts the 25-year-old Farrell will eventually emerge as first among equals because of his superior decision‑making: “We always talk about it. You can have all the systems in the world, all the shape but it comes down to the decision-making of the ball players and their ability to assess and pick the right options, along with a bit of communication. I think Farrell is just ahead in that regard.”
But what about Farrell as an attacking catalyst? He looked in fine touch in Toulon a fortnight ago and Evans believes the Saracen has made a conscious effort since Ford was picked ahead of him at 10 against Samoa in 2014. “His goalkicking is probably the best in the world and he knew that if his attacking game improved it would open many more doors, for him and the team. I think he’s done that,” he says. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to him. When he first came on the scene he could attack but he was defensive orientated with a structured kicking style, as Sarries were back then. The England team were a bit like that, too, and it worked. But now the All Blacks are going to score 30-40 points a game, you’re going to have to score tries.”
In Evans’s view that means finding an alternative midfield mix, with only one of Farrell and Ford starting. “I can see why Eddie Jones sometimes plays them at 10 and 12 because if they want to play that wide game they’ve got two ball-players,” he says. “Longer-term, though, you suspect they’d have to do something different.
“If I was picking a backline I like a big ball-carrier but I also like a 13 like Conrad Smith or a Jonathan Joseph, someone with silky skills who can make a half-break and be robust enough but also give the team an outlet if they want to push it wider. Your second ball-player can be 13 or 12. The best 12 I ever played with was Aaron Mauger. He was a bit like Kyle Eastmond. I’d just look to my right and he’d be chirping away, offering advice. You don’t need a kicker at 12. Full-backs can kick. Use them as second kickers or throw one pass more and kick from those angles.”
England could do a lot worse than invite the smart, perceptive Evans along to a training session. Jones was at pains this week to stress that pairing Ford and Farrell was not “an experiment” but he likes the idea of Manu Tuilagi or Ben Te’o at 12 as well. While Carter, Michael Lynagh and Jonny Wilkinson all did play Test rugby at centre, they were all ultimately happier running the show at 10.
Ford, therefore, faces the same struggle as Evans and Charlie Hodgson, neither of whom won the Test caps their talents demanded. Evans rated Hodgson highly – “He was one of the best passers … you’d try to stop them but he always found the right pass at the right time” – but believes some current 10s still have work to do. He is unsure about Henry Slade’s best position – “It’s going to be tough to push out Farrell, Ford and [Danny] Cipriani … if I was him I might be thinking 13 because he’s got the skill set” – and feels Cipriani will never be a Test regular unless he improves his goalkicking.
Stade Français’s Jules Plisson also disappointed him – “Sometimes he looks brilliant but then he comes to play us and he looks a schoolboy” – but Barrett is presently beyond compare: “He’s been unbelievable. Then again, if you were in behind the All Black pack you’d be carving up as well.”
Even a perfect 10 needs a solid platform and complementary centres at his or her elbow.
