Italy won’t fear Eddie’s heavyweight backs
ENGLAND supporters will be seriously excited by Eddie Jones’s heavyweight backline — but I am not sure Ben Te’o and Manu Tuilagi will strike the same fear into the Italians. A lot of people will look at this selection and think ‘Wow’ due to their sheer size but I am not convinced. It looks good on paper, but how good are these guys offensively and defensively? I did chuckle when I saw the team. I remember a phrase Eddie used when speaking with him about backlines and how to beat the All Blacks. Talking about our respective wingers when we coached England and Australia — Ben Cohen and Wendell Sailor — he said: ‘I’d always choose a good big ’un over a good little ’un’. It’s a line I have never forgotten. Eddie has certainly stayed true to that by picking Te’o, Tuilagi and Joe Cokanasiga. This selection has Eddie’s and defence coach John Mitchell’s fingerprints all over it — they like big, powerful men. Eddie was really annoyed with Italy when they came to Twickenham two years ago with their ‘no-ruck’ tactic. It made him and his team look a bit foolish. There were those images of Dylan Hartley and James Haskell asking referee Romain Poite the laws and he came out with the line ‘I am the referee, not your coach’. So this looks like payback time. Eddie really likes Te’o as he has not played for seven weeks but is straight back in. Cokanasiga is a positive selection. He is ahead of Jack Nowell, so I have no qualms with him starting. However, if I were Conor O’Shea and Italy I would fancy my chances against that backline as a whole. Without Henry Slade there is less variety and nous. It is not the quickest or most fluent side, so the challenge for Italy will be to get around the big guys. Italy have no chance of winning, but if they play quick rugby and chance their arm, they will have some joy. In attack, they should be able to move England around and defending should be more straightforward with Te’o and Tuilagi together in midfield. Running straight at defences and looking to batter through teams is not enough at international level. Neither Te’o nor Tuilagi put subtlety top of their skill list. They are powerful but Italy and 82,000 fans at Twickenham will know what’s coming. We all do! Those two should really be competing for the inside centre position with the likes of Slade and Jonathan Joseph the play-making outside-centre options. Dropping Slade is really harsh. The Exeter centre was pretty much the man of the match in an amazing performance in Ireland and provides a creative option in midfield which is so important. I would be pretty hacked off if I were him and would not have left him out. Tuilagi and Slade played brilliantly together in Ireland and looked England’s nailed-on midfield for the World Cup, so I am surprised Eddie has changed it. I am sure if England had beaten Wales they would not have made these changes. Eddie is running out of time to find a settled team with only two properly competitive Tests until the World Cup.