World Cup may be too far for England
Stuart Barnes says the Premiership has a big part to play in supporting the host nation’s World Cup challenge
If ever there was an English season in need of the exceptional, this is it. One year out from the World Cup with an international team praised from one end of the world to the other for rediscovering English humility. But are humility, hard work and home advantage enough to win the World Cup?
Evidence from the summer suggests that Twickenham will need to be worth a dozen points or so against New Zealand unless someone else knocks them out of the competition. If that someone is South Africa, the Springboks, with their fine record at Twickenham, would prove formidable.
One wonders whether hard work, humility and Twickenham will even catapult them from a pool in which both Wales and Australia are capable of the extraordinary. There are plenty of questions for Stuart Lancaster in the year ahead. There are potential answers but the England head coach needs a rethink.
Lancaster is not a man for a backward step and anything to get teams playing more positive rugby should be acclaimed. So let us acclaim England, but let us also admit that unless England unearth more exceptional players in the course of this season, they could be walking towards a heroic sort of sporting suicide in 2015.
There are names. The most obvious is Steffon Armitage, but he will need to emulate his incredible last season to stay in contention. While the incumbent squad will be given leeway for inconsistency, Armitage will be judged harshly. It is harder to get out of a squad than it is to get in it.
Such is the New Zealand way. Aaron Cruden suffered an indifferent domestic season and all of New Zealand called for Beauden Barrett to be elected at fly half, but Steve Hansen stuck with his man. The fly half repaid him with a performance of bewildering brilliance in the demolition of Australia.
This loyalty to the squad engenders the club feel that Lancaster has created with England. But if the exceptional is lacking, something has to be added to hard graft and good intentions. Hansen ignored the existing New Zealand regulations and drafted Sonny Bill Williams straight into the Kiwi mix for their autumn tour. Even though they have rare talent, Williams has exceptional range to his game. Rules exist in order to be tested, strained and, when necessary, broken.
The chance of Sam Burgess being named in the England elite squad before he arrives in Bath from Australia is nil. Yet I would fast-track him into the squad. He might just be the man to make the difference a year from now. If he doesn’t wear the red rose this season, he will not play in the World Cup.
Had England a midfield that functioned, I would not be suggesting anything quite as radical, but England touched down from New Zealand as confused as ever. It appears that Manu Tuilagi and Owen Farrell are set for outside centre and fly half, respectively, but nobody has made the No 12 shirt remotely their own.
In a recent interview, Chris Robshaw stated how good it was for England to have two or three people pushing for every position; to a point. The flip side is an absence of outstanding players who own that shirt. World champion teams have a core of certainties.
One man as certain as his place as any is Farrell; the fly half has a magnificent temperament, a given requirement for an international No 10. Yet what if the other team have a bloke with the same mental strengths and superior technical ones?
Outstanding in the RBS Six Nations, where the psychological pressure is greater than the technical requirements, Farrell produces a worrying number of off-days for someone who is perceived as a key part of the cog rather than one of those flimsy match-winners we so mistrust.
On Saturday, George Ford and Danny
England rugby coach Stuart Lancaster needs to unlock some surprises a year out from the Rugby World Cup. Cipriani should take the field against one another. The former has exceptional vision but has much to do to convince Lancaster of his mental strength. Cipriani, on his day, has it all. The Sale Sharks fly half had an interesting tour in New Zealand. He played only a few minutes of international rugby but looked the part, while his understated half against the Crusaders demonstrated his ability to control a game.
The door to the team and the mind of the head coach should remain open to significant potential changes. If he wants to shoot for the stars stylistically, the Aviva Premiership has a positive part to play; whether the fast track is the right track depends upon Lancaster’s eyes being open to the exceptional.