This England team will do a job at Murrayfield... but why is Curry at No8?
WITH one major and one minor reservation, Eddie Jones has picked a much better England team to play Scotland tomorrow and the fact he’s made five changes suggests he has admitted he was at fault in Paris last week.
Let’s hope his coaching and gameplan has improved along with his selection. It looks a much better team and I believe they will get the job done, narrowly, against a fired-up Scotland.
The consequences of a third defeat on the bounce are so big that you will see much more energy, intensity and accuracy, even if England have still clearly not got over the disappointment of their World Cup final defeat. This is the match that could — and should — galvanise England.
My major reservation remains Tom Curry at No 8. I just don’t get it. Why would you move arguably the best flanker in the world out of position? Especially when you have three other specialist No 8s playing so well in Alex Dombrandt, who would be my choice, Nathan Hughes and Sam Simmonds. England have great options in this position while Billy Vunipola is injured.
Some have drawn parallels with my early days as England coach when I moved Lawrence Dallaglio from blindside flanker to No 8 but the situation is totally different. Curry is an out-and-out flanker; a magnificent young player and already established as a World XV contender in that position at 21.
I wouldn’t sacrifice that guaranteed excellence, both in tackling and jackling, for the less probable return and contribution he might produce at No 8.
To me, Lawrence always looked like a world-class No 8 even though he had played exclusively as a flanker in Test rugby before I took the England job.
I would say he was a more versatile, rounded talent and a better ball player but without those very specialist skills that Tom shows as he tracks the ball and as a ball carrier.
Lawrence was a brilliant Test No 8 in the making who improved until he became the world’s best but Tom is already a brilliant flanker. You can always improve but he is virtually the finished article already.
So England supporters will be holding their breath again tomorrow. There is some dirty weather forecast and in such conditions you want a No 8 totally at ease with his game. It’s going to be another huge Test for Tom and he will hopefully come through it but Scotland will put him under as much pressure as possible.
My other caveat is full-back George Furbank, who endured a difficult debut in Paris and could come under even more pressure at
Murrayfield. I will admit I haven’t seen enough of him under the high ball to be really confident in that department. Within the England camp they might be fully confident but I’m just not sure.
That back three combination of
Furbank, Daly and May is pretty small and lightweight and could come under massive pressure from Scotland’s kicking game.
England have signalled their intentions for a ‘must-win’ game by naming a 6-2 split on the bench with heavyweights Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes poised to add even more power to proceedings if needed. I’m not sure I would necessarily risk a 6-2 split if I felt there were question marks over the back three defensively.
Before the game in Paris Jones spoke about brutality and physicality — which I wasn’t happy with — but I’m looking for deeds not words this time. I suspect the England forwards will produce a very powerful performance.
Mako Vunipola was always going to return at loosehead — I’m still not entirely clear why he was left out against France — and England’s best second-row combination is the tried and tested Saracens pair of Maro Itoje and George Kruis who are back together.
Although the back row doesn’t look ideally balanced to me, at least Lewis Ludlam is used to playing blindside flanker and looks at home there. Let’s hope he can play as well as he’s talked this week.
It is probably a toss-up at scrumhalf. Willie Heinz and Ben Youngs are experienced players who perform best behind a pack that is going well. The issue though is who will succeed this duo.
I like the look of the George Ford, Owen Farrell, Jonathan Joseph triumvirate, especially if the weather is as bad as forecast. That’s when you need two world-class kickers at 10 and 12 and they do not get any better than these two.
I read that England have won 15 of the 17 games when they start together. However, whether the elements will allow much running rugby, we will have wait and see.
“A third loss in a row would be devastating”