Slammin’ Sam

Jones hails ‘great discovery’ Simmonds after he takes Six Nations by storm in opening win

It was not quite a case of “Billy who?” but the performance of Sam Simmonds, England’s third-choice No 8, provided another reminder of the staggering depth of resources available to head coach Eddie Jones. This is the context for which any future “injury crisis” involving England must be framed.

Whoever awarded Anthony Watson man of the match, a pair of fine finishes notwithstanding, deserves their accreditation to be revoked for the remainder of the tournament. Not only did Simmonds match Watson’s haul of two tries but he also posted game-high totals for tackles made (23), carries (14), metres made (80), clean breaks (3) and defenders beaten (6). And he also weighed in with an assist for Jack Nowell in his first Six Nations match. There is more to rugby than bare statistics, but in this case the numbers do add up.

It is worth recalling that this time last year Simmonds was still a week away from making his Premiership debut for Exeter Chiefs, having returned from a loan spell at Cornish Pirates. When he first came into the England squad during the autumn, Jones was less than convinced he was a natural No8, an opinion he was happy to revise yesterday. “Life is full of contradictions and he is one of them,” Jones said. “He gives a different type of No8. He is like the guy who used to play for the All Blacks, Victor Vito. Very fast, elusive.”

At a touch over 16 stone, Simmonds is around three stone lighter than Nathan Hughes and nearly five stone lighter than Billy Vunipola. Simmonds is not and will never be that type of heavy-duty ball carrier. A couple of times yesterday he got knocked backwards in the tackle. Simple physics means he will struggle to generate go-forward from a standing start like Vunipola can.

This is the mistake his director of rugby at Exeter Rob Baxter frequently redresses. Don’t focus on what he can’t do but focus on what he can. “If he gets his hands on the ball 15 times then regardless of the opposition he is going to give you go-forward and two or three times he is going to make some breaks that can turn a game,” Baxter told The Daily Telegraph in November.

And so it came to pass. After a quiet first half which Simmonds mainly spent defending, the 23-year-old came into full view in the final quarter. Although he made at least seven more tackles than any other player, he still retained his explosive speed to burst through the middle of a line-out to score England’s bonus-point try. Further evidence of his pace came with his second try as defenders were left for dead.

“He is a bit of a freak, Simmo, isn’t he?” Nowell, his Exeter team-mate, said.

“He is up there with one of the quickest I have played with and a lot of the boys here will say how quick he is. He has got a backside so that’s where the power comes from. He has been doing that for us