Daly must pull out the stops if he’s to be Jones’ first 15
EDDIE JONES has a funny way with the language of his squad lists. Somewhere along the line, replacements became finishers. And, as recently as the summer tour to South Africa, Jones was splitting his backs into two camps: inside backs — scrum-halves, fly-halves and centres — and full backs. No, not just No15, but the whole back three.
The implication was that the back three all need the fielding skills and game sense of full-backs, and that the trio work as a unit. As if to prove the point, Mike Brown — a full-back — played left wing on that tour, while Elliot Daly, a utility back who is happiest at outside centre but had never started a Test anywhere other than wing, played full-back.
There is an irony, though, that while Jones was listing all his wingers as fullbacks, he has a growing raft of options on the wing, but full-back remains a real problem position for England.
Chris Ashton, Jack Nowell, Joe Cokanasiga, Jonny May, Daly and the injured Anthony Watson are all superb wingers, but there is no standout candidate at full-back; well, unless you get into Jones’s aversion to Alex Goode, a man who should have 50 caps but has 21.
Anyway, Daly has started all six Tests and the non-cap match against the Barbarians since the start of that tour at full-back, and not missed a minute. But he has never looked comfortable under the high ball — the full-back’s bread and butter — and has been exposed positionally on occasions. Watson had the same issues in the final two Six Nations games this year.
Daly is certainly worth a place in England’s first-choice backline somewhere, but needs a stronger showing against Australia on Saturday to demand that the experiment continues. “I’m enjoying it,” said Daly after the win over Japan. “I’d like a little bit of ball, I haven’t had much in the last three games, but you can’t have everything. It has been good to get into a new system with the wingers and try to marshal that from the back.”
With Watson due back in the new year, a barnstorming showing from Daly on Saturday would go a long way to settling the debate.
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