Daly’s stuck in the middle with Wasps
ELLIOT DALY will swap the England No15 shirt for the Wasps No13 tomorrow against the advice of the national side’s former full-back great Jason Robinson.
Daly took over as full-back on England’s tour to South Africa in the summer from Mike Brown and was an everpresent in the position in all four internationals this month.
However, when Wasps today name their side to face Premiership champions Saracens, Daly will revert to his club slot of centre.
Robinson feels that with only nine Tests between now and the World Cup and Daly seemingly Eddie Jones’s chosen man at the back, he could do with as much time as possible there to iron out the high-ball problems which afflicted him during the autumn Tests.
“To make that change now, Eddie must see him as the 15 for the World Cup but if you’re not in that position on a regular basis it makes it a lot harder,” said 2003 World Cup winner Robinson.
“You can’t just expect to go from one position to another and have everything nailed.
“Aerially he wasn’t as good as I thought he would be for England.
“I was beaten many times on the high ball but you have to be there to challenge for every one.
“Sometimes when you go for a ball you might get beaten to the catch but you have to be in position so that if that stray arm isn’t there it drops straight into your arms.
“One of the things I noticed was that on quite a few, too many, occasions he was a metre or metre and a half away.
“He has been one of England’s best players for the past couple of years and there are lots of things he brings but it is an adjustment.
“He has all the skills for it. He has lots of attributes that others don’t. But the key thing for me is getting that high ball right.”
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young accepts the logic that the continuity of playing full-back every week would help Daly but yesterday explained why he will not be picking him there.
“Over the last six or seven games he has basically established himself as England full-back but you talk to Elliot and Elliot’s preferred position is No13,” said Young. “It’s very difficult for us to build a team around what England would want because we have signed people up on contracts based on Elliot Daly playing 13. Charles Piutau, Kurtley Beale and Willie le Roux were all brought in around that. There were one or two occasions when he didn’t do as well as he would have liked with the high ball and it doesn’t help that he’s not playing there week in, week out.
“But moving forward, I don’t think that the high ball will be a problem for him.” Despite bowing to the player’s own wishes, Young’s personal view is that Daly, who scored a fine individual try in England’s victory over Australia on Saturday, is more effective as a full-back. “Personally I’ve always felt his best position is 15 – the more times Elliot gets the ball in his hands, the more opportunities we have to win games and he gets the ball more times at 15 than 13 – but I’ve been quite comfortable to support him in whatever position he wants to play,” he said.
“It is a really tight call – he plays really well at both – but I would find him a little easier to mark at 13 than 15.” Tighthead prop Kyle Sinckler, man of the match for England last weekend, goes straight back into the Harlequins starting line-up tonight against Exeter in the Premiership. Cardiff Blues yesterday confirmed that Wales flanker Ellis Jenkins will have to undergo surgery on the knee injury he sustained in the victory against South Africa last Saturday.
He is set to miss the rest of the season and faces a battle to be fit for the World Cup in Japan.