Given England’s cricketers and footballers have both failed to reach the knockout stages of their respective World Cups it is fair to say their rugby players do not have much to beat. The bad news is that Stuart Lancaster and his squad now know precisely the reaction they can expect if they also contrive to fall short of expectations on home soil in September and October.
Lancaster still has the rest of the Six Nations championship to negotiate, with Brad Barritt, Tom Croft and Henry Thomas all now sidelined through injury, but events in Adelaide have reminded everyone that successful World Cup campaigns do not just happen. Lancaster has met Peter Moores and has a fair idea of how his cricketing counterpart currently feels. “I don’t think anyone would do anything other than empathise but it reinforces the need for us to be as best prepared as we can for our big challenge in six months’ time,” admitted Lancaster. “You can’t help thinking ahead to what September is going to look and feel like.”
Should England, as hosts, lose to both Wales and Australia in their World Cup pool games at Twickenham, the fallout will make the present mood in English cricket feel positively euphoric. It would help all concerned, therefore, if Lancaster and his players can soothe public disquiet over the next fortnight by winning their last two Six Nations games, whether it earns them a title or not.
That looks set to involve a recall for Courtney Lawes in the second row and the fit-again Mike Brown at full-back, with further changes likely on the bench where Kieran Brookes, Tom Wood and possibly Geoff Parling are all in contention. Luther Burrell should be fit to train this week having recovered from a calf niggle but the loss of Barritt for the rest of the tournament with a high ankle strain has yielded a call-up to training this week for Exeter’s Henry Slade, a reward for the latter’s consistent form in the Premiership.
Bath’s Sam Burgess will also be at Bagshot this week as his union education continues but his international union debut remains a way off and he is not under consideration for the Six Nations. Slade, for his part, is highly unlikely to feature this weekend but Lancaster has already pencilled the 21-year-old into his wider summer training squad ahead of the World Cup. “In a World Cup squad of 31, you absolutely have to have players who can play in different positions,” said Lancaster. “Someone like him would be reasonably confident of being there or thereabouts. The more I see him, the more I think he’s got fantastic potential.”
Among the forwards Tom Youngs is pushing hard to start at hooker but England will stick with Dylan Hartley for this week at least as they look to bounce back from their disappointing defeat in Ireland. “I don’t want to make too many changes,” stressed Lancaster. “It might come down to leaving it how it is in that position until we come through this game.”
The England camp, meanwhile, are rising above this week’s comments from Stuart Hogg suggesting England don’t respect Scotland. “I did read his comments but I think he was referencing some club games,” said Lancaster, who himself represented Scotland at under-19 and student level. “The point Stuart Hogg was perhaps making was that the quality of the Glasgow performances and the Glasgow players who play in the Scottish team hadn’t been recognised. From my point of view, one of the best performances I have seen all season was the Glasgow home performance against Bath in the European Cup. You don’t get to be top of the Pro12 by accident so they’ve clearly got a lot of good players in their team.
“Having represented Scotland, I have plenty of respect for the players and what they have achieved. I can’t control what other people say but we have a healthy regard for their team, their players and their coaching team.”
