How fascinating it will be to watch the respective careers of Billy Twelvetrees and Sam Burgess play out over the next 10 months. The former is about to take centre stage against Australia at Twickenham this weekend, with the promise of a regular place at 12 if he goes well, but Burgess’s impending union debut for Bath on Friday night also has potential repercussions for England’s 2015 World Cup campaign.
As Stuart Lancaster was quick to emphasise, it is ridiculously premature to use the words “Burgess” and “England” in the same sentence when the player concerned has yet to play a single adult game of union and does not yet know his best position. That said, Lancaster, his fellow coaches and the entire national squad will have their noses collectively pressed to the screen when Burgess comes off the bench against Harlequins at the Recreation Ground.
It is an open secret England’s management would love to have a player of Burgess’s physical strength and leadership quality in the fold next summer, if only to keep everyone else honest. Lancaster, for one, feels it is wholly unrealistic to imagine Burgess featuring in this season’s Six Nations Championship. “I’m not sure anyone, least of all Sam, thinks that. He’s very realistic and knows he has to learn the game. We can only base our selection on facts rather than what might happen or how he might adapt to the game.
“Without doubt he’s a quality individual and quality rugby player. Some make the transitions from league to union, others don’t. We’ll wait and see and make our judgments based on club form. He’ll have to get in his club team first and play well. Then he will have to prove he has something over and above the equivalent players in his position.”
The initial reports on Burgess from the Bath dressing room, though, have been overwhelmingly positive. “The lads have been saying he’s looked really sharp in training,” revealed George Ford, whose starting display against Samoa has relegated Owen Farrell to the bench against the Wallabies. “Knowing Sam as a guy, his drive and determination are unbelievable. Since he’s been in Bath he’s come on leaps and bounds already in the way he’s training and what he’s learnt. He’s the type of character who wanted to play three weeks ago when he still wasn’t fit. From my point of view I can’t see it not being a success just because of the way he is.”
Whatever unfolds, Burgess will need to show the sort of patience Twelvetrees has had to exhibit since being dropped from the national team following a particularly costly loose pass against the All Blacks in Dunedin. After three spluttering home performances at Twickenham, however, the Gloucester captain has been chosen to line up alongside Brad Barritt – the fifth different centre partnership England have fielded in six Tests – and invited to book his World Cup berth.
England’s midfield edge urgently needs sharpening and, alongside his former Leicester club-mate Ford, Twelvetrees cannot wait to make up for lost time. “For any professional athlete hearing you are not in the squad is not nice. You always want to be playing but the stage we’re on is highly competitive. It’s cut-throat and, if you make one mistake against the world champions, they will score from it. There’s no place for complacency or being soft on yourself. But whatever has happened is in the past. All the coaches and players are in agreement that it’s all about what’s happening in the present.”
Lancaster, who has duly recalled Dylan Hartley and Tom Wood to the pack in place of Rob Webber and James Haskell, is also keenly aware a third November defeat would ratchet up the pressure on all concerned heading into 2015. “Finishing the autumn internationals with a win rather than a loss is a big mood-shaper for me. At the highest level you’ve got to get all the critical decisions right and we’ve not been doing that. Our decision-makers need to control the game. We recognise the quality of the side we’re playing but equally we back ourselves to do well at Twickenham.”
England team to face Australia
Brown (Harlequins); Watson (Bath), Barritt (Saracens), Twelvetrees (Gloucester), May (Gloucester); Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); Marler (Harlequins), Hartley (Northampton), Wilson (Bath), Attwood (Bath), Lawes (Northampton), Wood (Northampton), Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), Morgan (Gloucester)
Replacements Webber (Bath), Mullan (Wasps), Brookes (Newcastle), Kruis (Saracens), Haskell (Wasps), Wigglesworth (Saracens), Farrell (Saracens), Yarde (Harlequins)
