WHY NO JOE? UMAGA MAKES A LOT OF MISTAKES

IT IS the strangest autumn, a rugby year without precedent and although there seems to be much talk about Eddie Jones using this run of England games to experiment, he should stick to the old adage of picking his strongest side against Italy. England have four Autumn Nations Cup matches in succession after they finish their Six Nations campaign at the weekend and the opportunity to blood players and play squad members will come naturally with injuries and the need to rotate. For the Italy game he should go with what he considers to be his ‘Gun XV’ and let everybody in the squad know what the batting order is and the levels they have to aim for. With that in mind, I was massively surprised at Joe Simmonds’ omission. If England were playing New Zealand tomorrow, or France in Paris, I would definitely want the Exeter fly-half on the bench. If Owen Farrell were to twist his ankle after five minutes, Simmonds is the man I would want to replace him — which is always the acid test. Simmonds is the only one of the promising crop of young No 10s who has the consistency and 80-minute game you look for at the top level. He is also the only player whose goal-kicking can match Farrell’s. It seems like it was pre-lockdown that he last missed a kick at goal! He has done it at the sharp end throughout this Premiership season and some huge European games. We are much further down the line in knowing his true capability. Wasps’ No 10 Jacob Umaga is an exciting talent, he took his try on Saturday in the Premiership final very well and can kick very long out of hand but he makes a lot of mistakes and often in clusters. Against Exeter in the rain, he was standing much too far away from scrum-half Dan Robson and too far away from his inside centre Jimmy Gopperth, and as a result his handling and passing suffered. Umaga’s time will come, he has X factor, but on current form Simmonds is clearly ahead. Indeed, some would argue that Harlequins’ Marcus Smith, who was on fire at the end of the season, is also ahead of him. None of this will be a problem against Italy on Saturday when Umaga will probably come on with the game won against a tiring defence. But you don’t often get that luxury in Test rugby. We won’t learn a huge amount. It can get confusing. For a long while, one of the arguments against including Danny Cipriani in England squads was that he wasn’t really a goal-kicker of Test standard — he could not replicate Farrell in the respect. And yet the same applies to Umaga at Wasps where Gopperth does all the goal-kicking. It seems Umaga is now considered for what playmaking qualities he can bring off the bench but that approach was never adopted for Cipriani.