Get ready for Six of the very best
FORgET about the World Cup for a while and put England’s meeting with the all Blacks next november on the back burner — this autumn demonstrated the 2018 six nations could be something truly special.
scotland have lit up the autumn with the quality and intensity of their attacking play and they are going to be a massive factor in the tournament after Christmas. and remember, England have to travel to Murrayfield.
The scots, five months after they had just one player included in the original lions squad, have been a joy to watch and there might be a lesson there.
In the end they had three players down in new Zealand, although stuart Hogg had to come back early through injury, but the rest of the squad enjoyed a short, sharp summer tour, a proper pre-season and some decent rest. They look very fit and very hungry.
Teams often reflect the personality and attributes of their coach and I have rarely seen a more perfect example of that than scotland under gregor Townsend. His side are playing in the image of gregor at his very best, in perfect tune with his thinking.
Ireland hardly put a foot wrong and saw off south africa and argentina while scarcely engaging top gear. They are so well organised, clever and efficientt these days — they play in the image of Joe schmidt, dt, who possesses all those e qualities.
and England? There is the flamboyant, wise- cracking Eddie who you see in front of the cameras and there is the extraordinarily - hard- working, g, remorseless, pragmatic atic and driven Eddie who clocks l k on at Pennyhill Park every week.
He starts from the premise that his sides must be hard or almost impossible to beat and in that respect he’s already ahead of the game with England.
That has to be in place first and despite just one defeat in two years he is still not happy in that respect, hence his huge emphasis on getting England fitter.
Then come the add-ons and that is what he has been looking at this autumn: player options, depth charts, possible switches in position and so on. and of course the trick is to achieve that while not losing matches and slowing the momentum. Once that happens, no matter how sound your plans are, the fans and mmedia start getting a bit nervous.
England did what they needed to do against samoa, winning the game early on and then adding some style and substance right at the end. But in the big scheme of things, I suspect the game wasn’t hugely significant.
For England, the match in which performances will carry most weight was the 30-6 win over australia. The margin was slightly perverse and cruel to australia, but England deserved the victory and Eddie will remember those who performed well that day.
England are in very good shape but the quality of new Zealand’s play for the last half-hour in Cardiff was a reminder of just how much work they still need to do. England haven’t got the world- class attacking talent that the all Blacks have at their disposal — the likes of Beauden Barrett, Rieko Ioane and Waisake naholo. Or rather they might have but the full potential of England’s X-factor players is yet to be unlocked.
We saw glimpses of it from Elliot daly on saturday, while I believe anthony Watson, given a good run at full back, could also emerge as such a figure. The best midfield is still a work in progress with all sorts contending alongside Owen Farrell. There are Jonathan Joseph, Henry slade, alex lozowski plus the injured duo of Ben Te’o and Manu Tuilagi.
Up front the one performance against samoa that was probably worth clocking came from sam simmonds, who showed up well at no 8. He is not a no 8 but he could be a Test seven and I would like to see him play there, even in England’s opener against Italy.
Elsewhere, only Eddie will know what he has learnt because only he knows what combinations he is looking for. I have listed my firstchoice pack (right) with the only controversial selection that of Harry Williams ahead of dan Cole.
Cole is very experienced but I’m not sure I see him starting in 2019. You look at other Test props and they seem busier around the park, while Cole is still prone to giving daft penalties away. You need game time to develop as a Test prop and it’s the moment for England to promote Williams.