CONFUSING HIGH RISK ZERO LOGIC
Eddie’s baffling selections could backfire spectacularly
THE good news is I sensed a sharpening of intensity with England at Murrayfield – but the bad news is some of Eddie Jones’ selections are making me very nervous!
I’ve said many times that there is no such thing as a bad selection if your team wins.
The Six Nations is all about winning –full stop.
The ways to achieve this are many and varied. But if individuals being asked to play out of position struggle and cost their team the game, then massive questions will be asked of the selection.
So here we go again. Courtney Lawes is not a Test No 6, and although I can understand the temptation to pick a lineout man in the back row to combat Peter O’Mahony, who wins a lot of ball for Ireland, that is showing too much respect to the opposition and not concentrating enough on how England intend to go about their business.
Meanwhile, we still have one of the world’s great flankers in Tom Curry at No8 and now have Jonathan Joseph, a specialist outside centre, on the wing when Ollie Thorley is fit and available. Manu Tuilagi is at 13 when I would much prefer him to be playing 12 with skipper Owen Farrell at 10. It is all very confusing.
Once again I must stress that selection is the No1 skill of an international coach and I just hope all these players can adapt to the new position or system.
If Henry Slade is fit enough for the bench — he might have to play 79 minutes if somebody gets injured early on — England had the potential to select the Farrell-Tuilagi-Slade midfield who bossed the game so brilliantly a year ago when they won so handsomely in Dublin, their best Six Nations performance under Jones and up there with one of England’s greatest performances.
For tomorrow’s game, I would have started with Alex Dombrandt at No 8, moved Curry back to flanker and started with Ellis Genge.
England might get away with it because they are at home, which is a major advantage in Six Nations games, but selecting players out of position and packing the bench with six forwards and only two backs is a high-risk strategy that has handed the advantage back to Ireland and it could unravel. Looking at that matchday 23, England have five specialist locks — I’m struggling to recall ever seeing that before and can offer no logical reason to apply such an approach.
The World Cup final was different when South Africa had been using their ‘bomb squad’ off the bench to good effect all tournament, and it was a clear tactic that England failed to match, but very few sides have the Boks’ strength in depth in the forwards.
I see zero logic for England doing this and if we see Willi Heinz or Ben Youngs ending up on the wing, or Ben Earl having to put in a long shift in the backs ,as Eddie seemed to indicate yesterday, then it will have backfired spectacularly.
Although concerned by these issues, England definitely turned a corner mentally in that ugly old win in Edinburgh. The beer will have tasted good that night and there will have been a spring in their step at training.
With one away win already under their belt, they are still very live contenders for the championship and now they need to complete their recovery from the hangover after the World Cup final with a quality performance in front of their own fans.
As for Ireland, new coach Andy Farrell has got off to a decent winning start and tomorrow really is a free shot for him and his side.
The consequences of an Ireland defeat are negligible as long as they turn up and perform at a reasonable level. This relaxed, confident, state of mind was reflected by early announcement of their unchanged team 48 hours before they were required to.
I have no problem with team selections being left until a few hours before kick-off — the choice should be yours — but Farrell confirming his selection so early shows what a pragmatist he is.
His plans were in place, he knew his best team and they are all in their best positions. He had to