>> Guscott: Daly did good, now for Te’o
ONE of the best measurements of the quality of Eddie Jones’ performance as England head coach has been that almost every selection has worked out incredibly well.
His ability to judge when and where to best introduce players into the starting line-up, as well as the match 23, is testament to the knowledge he has accumulated over the years.
The latest test of Jones’ selection skill came yesterday when he selected Elliot Daly to start ahead of Jonathan Joseph against South Africa.
It appears that Daly made a big impression in training, and that combined with his exceptional form this season, and last, made it impossible to leave out the Wasps outsidecentre. Not long ago, in typical Eddie fashion, he made some comments about Daly not being ready to start ahead of Joseph, but that perception has changed – and I can see the attraction of bringing him in, with Joseph dropping to the bench.
Daly can run a very sharp defence-cutting line, and once he has seen the gap it doesn’t matter whether it is inside, outside, or straight, because he has the acceleration to make it count. He also has the ability to take one line, fix the defence, and then race clear with an outside break. The Wasps 13 has a real feel for space, and very accurate sonar about where to run.
Yesterday he had little opportunity to show that explosive gas, but what he did, he did well. There was nothing flashy. He took a couple of early balls, survived one massive hit, had a hand in Courtney Lawes’ try and kicked a spectac ular penalty. He has certainly put his hand up to play against Fiji next week.
Joseph is a fine player but he has perhaps become a little complacent and this will make it clear he has to be on fire for club and country to keep his place.
Against Fiji at Twickenham next week I would like to see Ben Te’o start. He will give England that extra dimension in midfield as we briefly saw when he came on yesterday as a replacement.
I don’t mind if Eddie Jones picks either George Ford or Owen Farrell at 10, I just want to see Te’o in action.
There were some fine plusses for England yesterday. Joe Launchbury was magnificent in all he did on his return to the
second row and Ben Youngs made some trademark, sniping runs, Farrell’s kicking was as immaculate as ever and Billy Vunipola was his powerhouse self.
It’s difficult to rate the performance at more than seven out of ten, however, as these Springboks are so average.
Their performance was lukewarm, they showed little confidence, their captain Adriaan Strauss is retiring after this autumn series and when they lost their talismanic lock Eben Etzebeth to a head in jury, they seemed to lose even more motivation.
England had started poorly, conceding so many penalties, but when they settled down they were always a class above.
The late tries gave the scoreline some semblance of decency, but make no mistake, the Boks were never in the game. They are a team in turmoil beset by politics back home.
Back to the Daly, Joseph debate: there is no question that Joseph has the more impressive Premiership statistics, especially in terms of tackle success.
Where Daly’s tackle rate of 76 per cent is not great, Joseph’s at 97 per cent leaves no room for doubt – and he is also ahead when it comes to turnovers.
Statistics are not the beall and end-all, but in the past those defensive stats would have prevented Daly from making the England team. So, it was a really big move for Eddie Jones to back him for what he can do – and also back him to improve in the areas where he is not so hot – rather than refusing to give him a chance.
It is a hard call on Joseph because he has not played at all badly for England. The only small criticism is that while he has worked very hard on his defence, his attack, in terms of passing and fluidity in linking, has stood still.
Joseph and Daly both have the pace to play on the wing – but no outsidecentre really wants to play on the wing.
The big difference between what Joseph and Daly see is that the Wasps 13’s view is more peripheral. He sees how the space is occupied by opposition players, whereas JJ sometimes stumbles through and then uses footwork and speed to make the most of it.
Daly’s vision means that nine times out of ten he has made the decision before he gets the ball to either shift it on, or take the gap. Joseph will invariably make the decision on his next move after he has received the ball.
Whatever, Eddie Jones will enjoy this dilemma.