Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019
RUGBY WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN 77
WORLD
CUP
WINNING
COACH
SIR CLIVE
WOODWARD
IT’S A FULL METALJACKET SQUAD!
C
ONGRATULATIONS
to every England
player named in
the 31-man squad
for the World Cup
— particularly Owen
Farrell, who will make a
great captain in Japan.
I am really excited about
this group and think they have
every chance of going all the way
in the tournament. Eddie Jones is
not hiding. This is a full metal
jacket squad.
Well done to the new guys who
have made a late charge into the
squad — Ruaridh McConnochie
and Lewis Ludlam are form picks
and good luck to them.
Equally, commiserations to
those who have missed out. You
feel most for Dylan Hartley, Chris
Robshaw and James Haskell who
have given everything to England
over the past few years but will
not be able to finish the job.
It is a shame for these players as
they have done so much right in
the aftermath of the debacle of
the last World Cup to take Eng-
land back where they should be.
Eddie has made some big calls.
I am not concerned with him
leaving out Brad Shields and Ben
Te’o — to be brutally honest nei-
ther would have been in my squad
anyway, so I don’t see their
absence as a problem. It is an
excellent selection.
It is not as though Farrell or
Maro Itoje have missed out, so
Te’o not making it after his con-
frontation with Mike Brown in
training should be taken with a
pinch of salt.
I don’t think Brown would have
made the squad, either. Are Eng-
land going to fail to win the World
Cup because Shields, Brown and
Te’o are absent? No.
There was a big noise about
Shields coming over from New
Zealand and he has not made the
final squad. I am cool about that
as Ludlam played well against
Wales and, to be honest, neither
are starters.
If Tom Curry or Sam Underhill
had been left out that would have
been a different matter.
Overall it looks a great squad
but I have one major issue — the
fact that England are only taking
two scrum-halves.
If either Ben Youngs or Willi
Heinz — or both — pulls up on
the Friday before a Saturday
match, you do not have the time
to fly someone out to Japan and
replace them.
At the World Cup, if a player is
injured and replaced they cannot
come back into the squad, so ifsomeone picks up a slight ham-
string pull they could be out for
the tournament.
You would then go into a big
game without your specialist No 9
on the field and with no proper
back-up on the bench.
If England end up with a player
on the bench who has to cover
the scrum-half position in the
pool matches against France or
Argentina, that is a nightmare
scenario. Eddie did not need to
take that risk.
He will have to use both No 9s in
every game. And even if one does
get injured and is replaced, there
will still only be two in thesquad! Eddie will have to get
away with it and be lucky. I hope
he is. It could be something that
is never mentioned again but if
there are injuries, England could
be in real trouble.
No doubt Eddie sees George
Ford as his back-up scrum-half,
but it’s a tough call for Ford to
play 80 minutes at No 9 against a
heavyweight of world rugby.
I really feel for Ben Spencer,
Danny Care and Richard Wiggles-
worth, in particular — they will be
in bits and have been desperately
unlucky to miss out.
When Eddie took the England
job, Care and Youngs wouldrotate and Care was often excel-
lent, especially off the bench.
I wouldn’t have picked six
back-three players and therefore
would have dropped either Jack
Nowell, currently injured, or
McConnochie and taken a third
scrum-half instead.
Anthony Watson, Elliot Daly,
Jack Nowell and McConnochie
are very versatile and cover all
of the back-three positions, so I
do not think Eddie needed to
pick six.
He has reinforced one of Eng-
land’s undoubted strengths while
ignoring England’s potential
achilles’ heel at scrum-half.I am fine with Eddie taking
five props. That is the correct
call. However, I would have
plumped for Harry Williams over
Dan Cole.
Finally, Piers Francis looks like
the ‘Mike Catt’ pick — a guy who
can cover fly-half. I think he could
be a good pick, with Danny
Cipriani missing out yet again, as
he is someone who is used to
playing No 10.
I am excited for Eddie as the
coach, he has a fantastic group of
players here.
It is going to take a great
team to stop England at the
World Cup.Eddie’s men can go all the way but I
DON’T agree with taking only two No 9s
Ford: I’m ready in an emergency
GEORGE FORD is ready to
answer the emergency
call at the World Cup if
injury strikes down
one of England’s two
scrum-halves in Japan.
The 26-year-old fly-half
has never played a
minute of Test rugby at
scrum-half, but will
provide cover for Ben
Youngs and Willi Heinz in
the unfamiliar position.
Most sides pick three
specialist scrum-halvesfor the World Cup but
England have plumped
for two. Ford revealed: ‘I
will be confident to play
there if needed. Under
Eddie’s regime I have
trained there quite a bit,
to be honest.
‘There have been fallow
weeks in the Six Nations
where I have spent every
session there.
‘Based on the training Ihave done, I have really
enjoyed it. You are right
in the thick of it and have
to be very fit to keep up
with play. Kicking, passing
— it is pretty similar
to No 10.
‘Within this environment
we try to respond well to
any situation.
‘Eddie does not tell me
when he wants me to
train there beforehand, it
is up to me to adapt when
presented with it.’By WILL KELLEHER
Anscombe’s World Cup woe
GARETH ANSCOMBE’S
World Cup dream was shat-
tered yesterday after he was
ruled out of the World Cup
with a serious knee injury.
The Wales fly-half hobbled
off in the first half of the
warm-up defeat by England
at Twickenham.
And the 28-year-old’s
nightmare scenario was
realised with the announce-
ment he had damaged the
anterior cruciate ligament
in his right knee — ruling
him out of the tournament.While there is no clear
indication of how long he
will be out of action, Wales
have confirmed that the
injury will rule him out of
going to Japan next month.
Speaking before the Welsh
squad knew the extent of
Anscombe’s injury, winger
George North said: ‘This is
the pointed end of the stick
now. The games come thick
and fast. We had (injuries)
badly four years ago andhopefully we will not have
them again this year.’
The news is not only a
hammer blow to Anscombe
but Warren Gatland too —
he is now without two of his
star men, with No 8 Taulupe
Faletau also out having
fractured his collarbone in
training.
Anscombe took to social
media to express his feel-
ings, tweeting: ‘Not quite
the way I was hoping my
World Cup dream would
finish.’By WILL KELLEHER
BEN YOUNGS 1st No 9 WILLI HEINZ 2nd No 9 GEORGE FORD 3rd No 9?