PAUL REES WONDERS WHETHER THE TIME IS RIGH Borthwick needs a clearer view at 9
THE top four countries in the world rankings all have established players at scrum-half, a position which has come to define a team. If the fly-half remains the playmaker, 9s dictate play, whether kicking, passing or darting through a gap.
Jamison Gibson-Park’s elevation over Conor Murray two years ago helped Ireland rise to the top of the rankings by upping the tempo, Antoine Dupont is probably the player in today’s game who is the hardest to replace, which is just as well because France have yet to settle on his deputy, Aaron Smith has long been the heartbeat of New Zealand while Faf de Klerk, despite a loss of form last summer, will be a driver in South Africa’s bid to retain the World Cup.
Gibson-Park and Smith excel in getting the ball away quickly with the All Black blessed with an ability to neutralise defenders with a slightly delayed pass. Dupont has everything rather than a strong point, from running to cover tackling, seeing a play a few moves ahead.
De Klerk suits South Africa’s style of wearing opponents down before letting rip, keeping the ball in front of his forwards and never letting his lack of size be a deterrent to conflict.
The sides below the top four in the rankings are far less settled in the position, not least England who have have capped seven scrum-halves since the summer of 2021. There were 10 players in the position in the Premiership at the start of the season who had pulled on the white jersey, reduced to eight when Dan Robson’s Wasps folded and Richard Wigglesworth retired from playing after being appointed Leicester’s interim head coach in December.
England have used four starters in the position in the last 20 months: Harry Randall, Ben Youngs, Danny Care and, the current occupant of the jersey, Jack van Poortvliet. Robson, Alex Mitchell and Raffi Quirke have all appeared from the bench.
Ben Spencer has not been called on by England since the 2019 World Cup final when he was summoned as a replacement for the injured Willi Heinz. Yet watching him for Bath against Harlequins at Twickenham last weekend, controlling the game from scrum-half and sucking free-flowing opponents into a quagmire, he would have attracted the interest of the national head coach Steve Borthwick.
Borthwick is a foundation coach, using building blocks to progress. Spencer served his apprenticeship at Saracens where he understudied Wigglesworth and there is no better box kicker in the Premiership. Bath
defeated Harlequins,
in a game where possession was almost shared, by playing in the right areas: they kicked more and passed less, more discriminating than their opponents in the way they attacked.
The top passers in the Premiership this season are all scrumhalves, not surprisingly, although some on the list have mainly been used from the bench. Care heads the list with 975 in 16 appearances, closely followed by Mitchell on 939 from the same number of games. Then comes Ivan van Zyl of Saracens.
Spencer is in 11th place with 502 passes in 14 appearances and 12 starts. He distributes the ball far less often than Care but his deputy, Louis Schreuder, has 452 passes despite making only seven starts and coming off the bench in seven matches. Bath, despite enduring another challenging season, have tended to finish matches strongly when Spencer starts and Schreuder comes off the bench: only one of their seven league wins has come when Schreuder started.
Next season, Finn Russell will grace the Recreation Ground. The Scotland outside-half likes to get his hands on the ball often and early, as did Danny Cipriani who was at Bath last season. Spencer would not be his ideal partner and will Bath continue to operate through their scrumhalf or, having pledged to focus on attack next season, will Russell take the baton? And will Borthwick take a look at Spencer before the World Cup? He started van Poortvliet throughout the Six Nations, changing the reserve scrumhalf from Youngs to Mitchell after the opening round defeat to Scotland at Twickenham.
He brought van Poortvliet through at Leicester and the scrum-half has had a taxing introduction to Test rugby in a team that has largely struggled since winning the 2020 Six Nations and the Nations Cup that autumn. England have lacked an identity, something the scrum-halves bring to the top four sides, and while Borthwick’s first months in charge saw the debate linger over whether Owen Farrell or Marcus Smith should be the starting outside-half, the other half-back position should come into focus.
Stuart Barnes, the former England outside-half, pondered last week in his column in The Times whether Spencer would be the solution for England at scrum-half despite the last of his four caps coming four years ago. He pointed out that Bath have the chance of making the Champions Cup next season if they beat Saracens at the Recreation Ground with a try bonus point and Bristol either lose to Gloucester at Ashton Gate or secure only four points. It would be a remarkable turnaround for a club which has spent most of the season at the bottom for the table, but it would not reflect well on the Champions Cup which, after next season, may not contain the team which finishes ninth out of 16 in the United Rugby Championship but will welcome the club which comes eighth out of 11 in the Premiership. Meritocracy should be consistent, not selective.
“Spencer is utterly unfashionable but absolutely ideal to fix the problem position for England,” wrote Barnes. “It has been years since Eddie Jones or Steve Borthwick had a scrum-half on whom they could rely. All the while Spencer has been skippering the sinking Bath ship.
“Many of us would like to see England play in a more liberated style, but if Borthwick remains true to his conservative core, Spencer’s ace card is ideal. He is the best kicking scrum-half available. His box-kicking gives chasers the opportunity to regain possession, while the length he gets from his left boot is a wonderful weapon for teams who prefer to play an old-fashioned territorial game to the modernist interpretation of Ireland, France, New Zealand a A
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