As any national coach will tell you, success at major tournaments is not just about performing over 80 minutes in the final. It is about building solid foundations over months and years, backing shrewd selectorial hunches, identifying the best tactical approach and instilling collective confidence. The naming of England’s 50-man training squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup on Wednesday is less about individual gain and more about setting a collective tone.
In his own mind Stuart Lancaster already knows the vast majority of those who will make his final 31-man posse to be confirmed in late August. What he wants to ensure over the summer months, when his players will be invited to sweat buckets for their art in Surrey and Colorado, is that no preparatory stone – or boulder – is left unturned. Identifying those with sufficient strength of character to cope with the colossal pressures ahead is absolutely key.
For that reason there will be few rookies travelling to the Rockies. Once the decision was taken not to make an exception and select the Toulon-based Steffon Armitage, a significant number of the other moving parts fell relatively easily into place. By extending the wider squad to 50 from the provisional 45, Lancaster has also opted to keep as many contenders sweet for as long as possible.
In contrast, France have named a training squad of only 36, leaving rather less margin for error in the event of injuries. There will always be unscheduled hiccups – in 2011 Danny Care damaged his foot in the buildup and missed the tournament – and Lancaster has clearly taken the view he would prefer not to be calling reinforcements up from the beach. Strength in numbers suits the management as much as it does the fringe contenders.
What is instructive, either way, is how few of Martin Johnson’s mature squad in New Zealand are likely to be involved this time. Only a third are set to feature again this autumn and some of the 2011 backline names – Shontayne Hape, Matt Banahan – make that tournament feel an awful long time ago. Instead there are likely to be only a handful of uncapped players in Lancaster’s 50, fewer still if Sam Burgess’s representative league history is taken into account.
What unites the up-and-coming youthful element – Maro Itoje, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade, Elliot Daly – is the same quality exuded by George Ford and Owen Farrell: on-field presence beyond their years. Not all of them will make the final 31-man cut this time but Itoje, who can play either back‑row or lock, and Cowan-Dickie will keep their seniors more than honest while Slade and Daly have the midfield class to make Manu Tuilagi’s abrupt absence less problematic.
What England do with Burgess will be mighty interesting, particularly given his increasing preference for playing at flanker rather than centre. At the very least he possesses leadership quality and a winner’s mentality, a more attractive package for Lancaster at this precise moment than, say, Exeter’s impressively strong but raw Dave Ewers. On the flip side, Burgess has barely had a break since the start of last year and has not done a great deal so far to indicate that he is a born Test union midfielder.
England still have until the end of August to make their minds up. Do they pick people on what they can do, or jettison them on the basis of what they cannot? On form or reputation? Bath’s director of rugby, Mike Ford, was fascinating on that subject this week, claiming England selected too negatively when he was involved with the national team. “I’ve been in selection meetings where people have said: ‘We can’t pick him, he can’t tackle.’ I’ve learned to say: ‘Let’s look at what he can do.’”
Gloucester’s James Simpson‑Daniel was among those he cited and, barring a late reprieve, Christian Wade is in danger of suffering a similarly unfulfilled Test career. There is no more dangerous wing in half a yard of space out wide than Wade but Johnny May and Chris Ashton, motivated by being dropped from the national team, have both finished the season at a gallop.
Leicester’s Ed Slater, unlike his club‑mate Tom Croft, has also made it back from a long-term knee injury in the nick of time and, like Itoje and Nick Easter, can offer the bonus of being able to play in the second and back rows. With Ben Morgan’s match fitness still uncertain following a broken leg, Easter will also consider he has everything to play for.
The last two weekends of the Premiership season will also offer others the chance to update perceptions, including for Henry Thomas, who has played just 47 minutes of Premiership rugby for Bath since February. For Armitage, though, the dream is over; he will be pushing 34 by the time of the 2019 World Cup in Japan. For a player of his talent never to feature at a World Cup is a crying shame.
Possible England 50-man training squad
Full-backs M Brown (Harlequins), A Goode (Saracens). Wings C Ashton (Saracens), J May (Gloucester), J Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), A Watson (Bath), M Yarde (Harlequins). Centres B Barritt (Saracens), S Burgess (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton), E Daly (Wasps), K Eastmond (Bath), J Joseph (Bath), H Slade (Exeter Chiefs), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester). Fly-halves D Cipriani (Sale Sharks), O Farrell (Saracens), G Ford (Bath), S Myler (Northampton). Scrum-halves D Care (Harlequins), L Dickson (Northampton), J Simpson (Wasps), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), B Youngs (Leicester). Hookers L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), D Hartley (Northampton), R Webber (Bath), T Youngs (Leicester). Props K Brookes (Newcastle), A Corbisiero (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), J Marler (Harlequins), M Mullan (Wasps), M Vunipola (Saracens), D Wilson (Bath). Locks D Attwood (Bath), M Itoje (Saracens), G Kruis (Saracens), C Lawes (Northampton), J Launchbury (Wasps), G Parling (Leicester). Flankers C Clark (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), M Kvesic (Gloucester), C Robshaw (Harlequins), E Slater (Leicester), T Wood (Northampton). No8s N Easter (Harlequins), B Morgan (Gloucester), B Vunipola (Saracens).
ALLEZ CLIVE?
When I mentioned in these columns last month that Sir Clive Woodward’s name had been linked to the vacant French coaching job, I suggested it was about as likely to become reality as Nigel Farage becoming French president. Since then Woodward has made the final shortlist of eight and is now being quoted as 10-1 fourth favourite by some bookmakers. Should the firm favourite Guy Novès lose out to England’s 2003 World Cup-winning coach, it will require an England comeback by Kevin Pietersen to oust it as the year’s most unlikely sporting new story.
ONE TO WATCH...
Bath v Leicester. When the Tigers lost 45-0 at the Recreation Ground in September it suggested the rivalry between two of England’s most successful clubs was entering a new phase. This weekend they will be reunited in a Premiership semi-final at the same venue. If Leicester win it will be one of the more striking achievements of Richard Cockerill’s eventful tenure.
