64 Wednesday January 19 2022 | the times
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helm of a Bath side who have won only
once all season, yet he is a star in the
making — a multi-talented, creative,
instinctive fly half — and if Jones
believes he has the makings of a World
Cup squad member, which I believe he
does, then he has to pick him.
Jones gets a lot of grief for the
number of players he has drafted into
England squads over the past six years,
with the total now nearing 180, but
what else is he to do? The talent is
spread across 13 clubs with 13 different
styles, 13 different fitness programmes
and 13 different priorities, while his only
hands-on involvement with the players
is on England time.
For example, Jones’s judgment of
Steward changed once the Leicester
full back came into the England camp.
Similarly, he was impressed by Ollie
Lawrence for Worcester Warriors but
decided upon working with him that he
was not hungry enough. Where it does
get confusing is the tinkering around
the edges: Adam Radwan and Louis
Lynagh out this time, Ollie Hassell-
Collins and Luke Northmore in.
England’s blessing of a rich pool of
talent is the enemy of consistency.
In a continuation of his autumn
policy, Jones is placing a greater stock
than ever on versatility. “We are partic-
ularly looking for those multi-skilled
back players who can perform not only
in this Covid era but going forward
towards the World Cup,” he said.
Hassell-Collins (power) and Jonny
May (pace) are the only specialist wings
in the squad. Max Malins can play fly
half, wing and full back; Joe Marchant
outside centre and wing; Henry Slade
wing and full back. In Bailey, Jones sees
a fly half who can also play full back (as
he did for England Under-20 last year)
while George Furbank is the opposite.Forwards A Barbeary (Wasps, Age 21,
uncapped), J Blamire (Newcastle, 24, 5),
O Chessum (Leicester, 21, uncapped),
L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter, 28, 31), T Curry (Sale,
23, 36), A Dombrandt (Harlequins, 24, 4),
C Ewels (Bath, 26, 26), E Genge (Leicester, 26,
31), J George (Saracens, 31, 61), J Heyes
(Leicester, 22, 2), J Hill (Exeter, 27, 12), M Itoje
(Saracens, 27, 51), C Lawes (Northampton, 32,
90), L Ludlam (Northampton, 26, 10), J Marler
(Harlequins, 31, 74), B Rodd (Sale, 21, 2),
S Simmonds (Exeter, 27, 9), K Sinckler (Bristol,
28, 47), W Stuart (Bath, 25, 15).
Backs M Atkinson (Gloucester, 31, 1), O Bailey
(Bath, 20, uncapped), O Farrell (Saracens, 30,
94), T Freeman (Northampton, 20, uncapped),
G Furbank (Northampton, 25, 5),
O Hassell-Collins (London Irish, 23,
uncapped), M Malins (Saracens, 25, 10),
J Marchant (Harlequins, 25, 7), J May
(Gloucester, 31, 69), L Northmore (Harlequins,
24, uncapped), J Nowell (Exeter, 28, 34),
R Quirke (Sale, 20, 2), H Randall (Bristol, 24, 2),
H Slade (Exeter, 28, 43), M Smith (Harlequins,
22, 5), F Steward (Leicester, 21, 5), B Youngs
(Leicester, 32, 112).Perhaps the biggest surprise of Eddie
Jones’s squad announcement for the
Six Nations was that it came without
any reference from the England head
coach to the Ashes. Jones loves a cricket
analogy, often to the befuddlement of
French or Italian rugby lovers in his
audience, and there was a clear lesson
to be drawn from the dismal events that
unfolded down under.
Stuart Broad declared, after
England’s one fighting display of the
tour saved the fourth Test in Sydney,
that the ECB’s priorities had skewed
horribly out of kilter, that the focus
needed to be less on preparing for the
future and more on winning immedi-
ately. “It’s all well and good planning for
the next away Ashes and looking at the
World Test Championship but if you
don’t win the battle in front of you it’s all
irrelevant,” Broad said.
Striking the perfect balance to deliver
short-term success and long-term
glory is the eternal quest for elite
coaches, and Jones cannot afford for
England’s rugby team to repeat the
mistakes of their cricketing brothers.
Jones is in the middle of a substantial
and necessary revamp of his squad for
the 2023 World Cup, triggered by last
year’s woeful Six Nations campaign in
which England finished fifth, having
lost to Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Out of the rubble has grown hope.
Marcus Smith, Freddie Steward, Max
Malins, Harry Randall, Raffi Quirke
and Alex Dombrandt were among the
23 players Jones capped in 2021 and
there will be more to come this year,
with Alfie Barbeary, the Wasps back-
row, at the head of the queue as Jones
rebuilds for next year’s tournament in
France. He calls it New England.
Sam Underhill and Elliot Daly are
the latest high-profile casualties of this
revolution, joining Mako and Billy
Vunipola and George Ford as veterans
of 2019 to be cast out into the cold.
Underhill, like Manu Tuilagi, is not fit at
the moment but the indications are that
the Bath flanker was not omitted purely
for medical reasons. Owen Farrell was
picked as captain for the championship
and he has not played for two months.
Despite Jones insisting that the door
was still open to Ford and the Vunipo-
las, it appears to have been locked from
the inside given the form and potential
of those promoted in their place. Ford’s
reaction to being dropped has been
everything that Jones demanded: he
has shown grace, poise, control, hunger
and leadership in guiding Leicester
Tigers to the top of the Gallagher
Premiership and yet still there is no
room in the squad, with Orlando Bailey,
20, now preferred. Jamie George, the
hooker who was initially axed in the
autumn, is the only senior player to
have been granted a reprieve by Jones.
In total contrast to Ford and his 77
England caps, Bailey is a rookie at the
Jones decides the
future is now for
his New England
The theory continues up front and it is
the turn of Ollie Chessum, the Leices-
ter lock/blind-side flanker, and one of
the form players in the Premiership, to
come into the camp in place of George
Martin, his Tigers team-mate.
One of Jones’s favourite statistics is
that the average number of caps won by
England players over the course of
history is seven. His challenge to the
newcomers is therefore not to win their
first but to establish themselves enough
to win their eighth.
Not that it helped Ben Earl, who has
not featured now for a year; another of
those younger Saracens players whose
face no longer seems to fit, along with
Nick Isiekwe and Alex Lozowski.
Strangely, all three fit the bill of versa-
tile, dynamic players that Jones prizes.
However, overall, Jones is doing the
right thing in revamping his squad. The
upturn in performance during the
autumn, triggered by the new faces and
a shift towards a more attacking game
plan, lifted the mood around the
national team. There is a sense of
expectation going into the Six Nations.
And rightly so. England supporters
should expect their team to be chal-
lenging for a grand slam every season.
We have allowed ourselves to be hood-
winked that the Six Nations title is a big
deal. It is a good achievement — better
than fifth, clearly — but it is the slam
that matters, it is slams that teams are
remembered by. If Jones is to deliver on
his statement of intent and turn this
England generation into the greatest
team ever to have played the game, he
will need a slam in the next two years.
Which brings us back to the cricket
analogy. An off spinner and a nuggety
batsman, Jones will have noted the
failings of England cricket. So it jarred
yesterday when he contextualised the
Six Nations, the grand old champion-
ship, as England’s “fourth-last cam-
paign” before the World Cup.
However, when pressed on the Ashes
analogy, Jones did state that England
would not make the same mistake and
devalue the Six Nations in pursuit of a
bigger prize. “Every campaign is impor-
tant,” he said. “To me, it is always about
looking after now but you’ve got to have
an eye to the future. I feel like we are in
a really good position to use the next
two years to establish a team that can
challenge and win the World Cup.”Alex Lowe
Rugby
Correspondent
The squad in numbers
178
Players now have been selected in
squads by Eddie Jones since he took
charge in 2016, with three new boys
— Ollie Chessum, Orlando Bailey and
Luke Northmore.10
From the match-day 23 that finished
last season’s Six Nations in Dublin
have not returned. Mako Vunipola,
Mark Wilson, Billy Vunipola, George
Ford, Ollie Lawrence, Anthony
Watson, Elliot Daly, Ben Earl, George
Martin and Dan Robson are absent.
Watson and Daly are not fit.22
Bath players — three more than
from any other club — have now
been selected by Jones, with
Orlando Bailey the latest.8
Bailey is only the eighth fly half
Jones has picked in six years, his
least tinkered-with position.revealed by The Times yesterday, as well
as Alfie Barbeary, Luke Northmore,
Ollie Hassell-Collins, Tommy
Freeman and Ollie Chessum.
“Every player is treated differently,”
Jones said when asked about why he
was apparently not applying the same
rule to Farrell as to other players
returning from injury.
“We believe Owen can get into his
best form very quickly and he will be
right to play against Scotland [at BT
Murrayfield on Saturday, February 5],
we will just have to wait and see how he
goes over the next couple of weeks.Ford and Vunipolas
“Very clearly he is the best person in
my judgment to captain the team, and if
he is fit and eligible for selection he will
captain the team. If he’s not then we will
make an adjustment.”
On Ford and the Vunipola brothers,
Jones said: “They’ve all got areas they
need to work on to come back into the
team and they’ve got to play at a level
where it makes me an idiot if I don’t
pick them.”
Jones is determined not to repeat the
mistakes of 2021, when Farrell and the
Saracens core were — by his own
admission — undercooked for the Six
Nations having hardly played in the
Championship after the club’scontinued from back
Meet Eddie’s six
uncapped hopefuls
Ollie Hassell-Collins
he is also solid under the
high ball. Last season he
made 37 line breaks in
the Premiership, the
second-most in the
league.
Chosen by Eddie Jones
for a training squad
before last year’s summer
internationals, it seems
he is now a preferred
pick for the Six Nations
to Newcastle Falcons’
Adam Radwan.Club: London Irish, Age:
23, Position: wing
Socks down, stepping
sharply off the left wing,
Ollie Hassell-Collins has
become one of the most
eye-catching players in
the Gallagher
Premiership over the past
two seasons.
He is capable of
accelerating through a
gap and then sustaining
his speed, and at 6ft 3½inLuke Northmore
Harlequins, 24, centre
Ten tries in 13
appearances this season
are a sign of the cutting
edge that Luke
Northmore brings to
the Harlequins attack,
making the most of
the opportunities
created inside him
by Marcus Smith
and André
Esterhuizen.
The Plymouth-
born centre played
alongside Alex
Dombrandt at
Cardiff Metropolitan
University and followed
the No 8 in signing
for Harlequins
a year later.
“He runs
strong lines,
carries well
through contact
and has good
footwork,” Jones said.417
Metres made by
Hassell-Collins with the ball
after contact this season
— more than any other
player in the
Premiershp