By George! Furbank is poised f or England debut
Watson injury forces Jones to reshuffle his back three
George Furbank is expected to make his international debut after Anthony Watson was ruled out of England’s opening Guinness Six Nations Championship match against France with a calf injury.
Watson was already carrying the injury when he joined England’s training camp in Portugal last week and medical staff erred on the side of caution when he took a late fitness test yesterday. He is believed to be in contention to play against Scotland tomorrow week.
The absence of Watson, who had been pencilled in as a starter, will force head coach Eddie Jones to reshuffle his back three when he announces his team this morning. It is understood that he is leaning towards selecting full-back Furbank over another uncapped rookie in Gloucester wing Ollie Thorley for a place alongside Elliot Daly and Jonny May.
Will Stuart, the uncapped Bath tighthead, is expected to make his debut off the bench after being retained in a 25-man squad. Hooker
Luke Cowan-dickie will rejoin the squad today after leaving earlier in the week for family reasons.
The selection of Northampton’s Furbank would provide the greatest talking point, not least because it would entail Daly moving to the wing. Daly had started his last 21 matches at full-back for England, but never truly convinced in the position. His susceptibility under the high ball again came under the microscope in the World Cup final defeat against South Africa in Yokohama.
Furbank would bring a very different skill set to Daly as an extra playmaker. In a recent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Furbank said: “I am probably not going to beat five people in a row and score a worldie.”
He belied that claim by running a searing line to score an excellent try for Northampton against Lyon in the Champions Cup in front of Simon Amor, the new England attack coach, on Jan 18.
The midfield of George Ford, Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi that started the World Cup final is expected to be retained. Jones is also set to pick Tom Curry at No8, with Sam Underhill remaining at openside and Courtney Lawes moving from the second row to blindside flanker.
It is a shift that Lawes is used to making, having started half his matches there for Northampton this season, and he says he is comfortable at making the same switch at international level. “I am easy either way,” Lawes said. “I’ve been switching in and out between five and six for Saints, which makes it easier when I come here. I am feeling more comfortable playing either role. There is not a huge difference.”
Coming off the back of their 32-12 defeat in the World Cup final, Jones’s mantra has been turning England into “the greatest team the world has ever seen”. While that has the ring of a typical Jones media sound bite, Lawes insists it is a genuine target that is being embraced by the squad.
“I think we could certainly do
that,” Lawes said. “It’s on us now, on our shoulders that if we want to get there, it’s up to us. It’s been discussed among us. Eddie wouldn’t say that if he didn’t believe it and we believe it, we agree with it and we will do everything we can to make that happen.”
Asked who he considered the greatest team, Lawes said: “I think the Kiwis. They are the most dominant team over the last decade. That is what we will be looking to surpass.”
Jones’s other key message this week has been that he wants to target a young French team with “brutal physicality”. That warning drew short shrift from Raphael Ibanez, the former captain and current general manager of Les Bleus. “We’ve been around for 30 years and we’ve always been hearing those kind of declarations,” Ibanez said.
“This concept of physical violence is interesting. But if you think about it, the England manager and us [Ibanez and Fabien Galthie, the France head coach], we have one thing in common: on Sunday, we will be in the stands. So, it’s easy to talk about physical violence when you’re watching from the stands.”
Even accounting for the two debutants in his team, Jones was correct in identifying the relative inexperience within a French side that was announced yesterday. Anthony Bouthier and Mohamed Haouas make their debuts at full-back and tighthead prop respectively, as new head coach Galthie attempts to rebuild French fortunes.
There are just eight survivors from the side who lost to Wales in the World Cup quarter-final in a starting XV who possess an average of fewer than 15 caps per player. There are two further uncapped players on the bench in Boris Palu and Cameron Woki.
Galthie was also unfazed by Jones’s threats and promised to fight fire with fire. “Expect a ferocious pack,” Galthie said. “Expect a ferocious battle to win the ball. Expect my players to stand their ground with ferocious tackles and collisions. They will play with passion and go beyond their limits.”