>> Tindall: Slade has to be given a chance
EUAN REEDIE talks to Mike Tindall about the conundrums Eddie Jones must answer
Mike Tindall has challenged England to reproduce the exciting rugby of 2016 when the autumn campaign kicks off in a fortnight against Argentina and believes Henry Slade can be the catalyst.
Slade and his uncapped Exeter Chiefs team-mate, back-rower Sam Simmonds, were on Thursday among several young guns named in Eddie Jones’ 34-man squad for the November series.
Jones is without established stars such as talismanic No.8 Billy Vunipola and Exeter winger Jack Nowell due to injury, but Tindall is confident England will not be unduly affected.
The 2003 World Cup winner believes the 2-0 triumph achieved by an experimental England side in Argentina last summer exemplifies the significant strength in depth at Jones’s disposal.
He told The Rugby Paper: “You look at the tour to Argentina and what the young kids did out there and we are in a strong position. Yes, we have got injuries – obviously Billy Vunipola is one of the biggest ones – but over the past couple of years we’ve had big injuries and we’ve found kids who’ve come in and played well.
“I think in the Six Nations last year, even though we almost won a Grand Slam, I don’t think we played a type of rugby that was great. I think this autumn it’s a chance to get back on that horse and play the exciting rugby that I think we played in the Six Nations the year before when we won the Grand Slam.”
The 75-cap centre insists Slade should start in midfield next month and disrupt Jones’ favoured George Ford-Owen Farrell axis at 10 and 12. This follows the 24-year-old’s sublime form for the reigning Premiership champions the Chiefs, which culminated in a man-of-the-match showing in Sunday’s stunning away win in Montpellier.
Tindall, 39, added: “I think everyone assumes that George Ford and Owen Farrell are going to stick together, but I’ve always said I’d prefer them to shoot out for 10. “I’d have Farrell – a worldclass player at the moment – at 10, with either Elliot Daly or Jonathan Joseph at 13.
“And I would like Henry Slade in that team; I think he could really add something, whether that’s at 13 or at 12. His performances are getting back to where he was before he broke his leg (in December 2015). He’s the perfect guy to have in that midfield. He can carry the ball, distribute, has a good kicking game and plays with his head up, so I think he would fit into that role very well.”
Tindall is pleased to see Sale winger Denny Solomona recalled and Harlequins’ teen sensation Marcus Smith keep his place in the squad, but believes Jones has a significant captaincy dilemma with incumbent Dylan Hartley under significant pressure for his spot from Jamie George. “You’ve got to be looking now at the World Cup in 2019 and Eddie Jones has to ask himself, ‘is Hartley going to be my captain in 2019?’ If he says yes, then he stays in the team. If he thinks that that’s not going to be the case, then I think now he should be looking at who is going to captain in 2019 and then you pick the best players around that. “Whether that’s Dylan – although Jamie George has been playing out of his skin – and he’s in a Saracens team that’s playing extremely well, that’s for Eddie to make those decisions. But I think it is getting close. “I know we are two years away from the World Cup but I think Eddie wants to know by the end of the Six Nations next year his best team and pretty much his 30 he wants to stick to. What we didn’t do very well in 2015 was Stuart Lancaster still changing the team right up until the World Cup, so Eddie has to set in stone the guys he thinks are going to be at the World Cup.” Tindall also endorsed the ambition outlined by RFU chief executive Steve Brown last week for Jones’ men to help make rugby England’s strongest sport. As such, he insists the pressure is now on the Red Rose to win the autumn series 3-0 – and he fully expects them to do just that and clinch the Grand Slam next year.
While looking forward with supreme optimism, Tindall does not want to dwell on an unedifying episode from his own past.
The RFU’s former director of professional rugby, Rob Andrew, has lambasted the then England captain’s behaviour during a night out during the 2011 World Cup in his new autobiography, but Tindall insisted: “He’s entitled to his opinion and he’s done that through his book and I don’t really want to talk about it because it’s six years ago now.
“I won’t hold it against him.”
Tindall was speaking while taking part in last week’s ‘Swing Against Cancer’ Golf Series finale organised by Sixteen10 and Worldwide Golf in Dubai.