The head coach is making light of the injuries and suspensions which have left him short of a number of regulars for their first match against Italy ..
Eddie Jones already has a number of interesting theories about this season’s Six Nations championship. In no particular order he reckons England are being written off before a ball has been kicked, that Ireland are being talked up prematurely and, most significantly, that his injury-ravaged 35-man squad for next month’s fixture with Italy in Rome can still claim a third successive Six Nations title.
His beady eye has also alighted on a headline in Monday’s Guardian which suggested the faltering club form of some Premiership clubs might have a knock-on effect on England’s looming campaign. Jones is a fan of the redesigned paper – “I love the new tabloid!” – but is less keen about England being perceived as more vulnerable this year. To Jones’s mind – “We still feel we’ve got a good enough team to win the Six Nations” – it remains very much a case of business as usual.
The reality, of course, is that no one yet knows for certain. Even Jones accepts England’s opposition are looking stronger, which was the precise point made in these pages. Those improving rivals, in turn, will look at a squad containing the country’s seventh-choice loosehead prop, a hastily promoted apprentice at No 8 and several others battling to be fit for next week’s training camp in Portugal and sense the destination of this year’s title is far from guaranteed.
When England’s senior players look around them in the Algarve, they will certainly find an unusually large number of fresh faces. Even a few days ago the odds on Lewis Boyce or Alec Hepburn featuring in the matchday 23 against Italy, as now appears certain, would have been at least 100-1. Exeter’s Hepburn would normally be the marginal favourite but even he is recovering from a concussion and may be unable to do much head-to-head scrummaging next week. Which leaves the Middlesbrough-born Boyce, just 21 and with only two Premiership starts for Harlequins since joining them from Yorkshire Carnegie. “He’s a tough boy who wants to make it; I like his attitude,” said Jones. Good stuff, but at this rate England may yet have to summon Del Boy and Trigger as well.
It is a not dissimilar story at No 8. Billy Vunipola is out of action for the whole championship, Nathan Hughes will probably be absent for a good half of it and James Haskell is now suspended.
Exeter’s Sam Simmonds featured in the autumn and offers eye-catching pace and dynamism but, in Vunipola’s absence, the entire balance of the back row inevitably changes. Enter Zach Mercer, the Bath No 8 who has previously been designated as a mere apprentice. “He’s always been one of those gifted boys but now he’s doing the tough things,” said Jones, approvingly. “I’ve been really impressed and he could certainly get an opportunity during the Six Nations.”
The other option would have been to call for another in-form Chiefs back-row, Don Armand, on the entirely reasonable grounds that Exeter are top of the Premiership and could be England’s only last-eight side in Europe. Jones, though, remains steadfastly of the view that club rugby, even at the top end, bears scant relation to its international cousin: “While you always like your players to win, if they’re not successful at club level it doesn’t mean you can’t be successful at international level. It’s no point me worrying about the clubs as I don’t control them. If I controlled them I would worry about it but I don’t. These boys have all got talent. It’s about whether they’ve got the desire, the ability to dig deep when it hurts.”
Italy will like the sound of that battle cry but England, despite summoning the uncapped Harry Mallinder and Nathan Earle, should still be able to field a familiar-looking starting XV if they can avoid further casualties. Jones knows he can rely on Mike Brown and Chris Robshaw even if they scarcely train or play between now and Rome and, with Elliot Daly and Semesa Rokoduguni out and Ben Te’o and Jack Nowell (now seen as a centre as well as a winger), battling to be match fit, the backline should virtually pick itself.
Ten of the 13 players listed as unavailable, however, are forwards and Jones, who has confirmed Dylan Hartley as his captain, must now pray the likes of Mako Vunipola and Maro Itoje come through the final European weekend unscathed. All his head coach predecessors suffered similarly; the only upside is that a country with England’s playing numbers will never entirely run out of willing personnel. “At the end of the day we’ve named a squad of 35 and there are still a lot of good players being left out,” said Jones.
True but his opposite numbers will now be wondering if England’s impenetrable suit of armour might just contain a chink or two.