At 11am yesterday Stuart Lancaster addressed the sporting media for the first time in this, the most important year in the history of England Rugby, as he clearly and precisely explained his England Rugby Training Squad and Saxons Squad. The intricacies of the EPS arrangement meant that the top level is a ‘Training Squad’ and essentially it comprises of the players that are fit and available to play this set of matches for the RBS 6 Nations. Naturally given injuries, short and medium term ones, there are other men that will wear the Red Rose of England during the course of the year, however for now we are focused firmly on the 34 in the training squad.
So the question is what does this training squad tell us about the position of England Rugby on 21st January 2015? In short it displays a pleasing consistency following on from the QBEs as well as overall highlighting the quality of English Rugby in totality for as Stuart described this is the 'strongest Saxons squad that he has been involved with'. The Out On The Full Saxons spotlight will be on the way shortly. Today at the home of English Rugby Stuart looked confident and calm like a man that is settled with his game plan and with the men that he has selected to go into camp. I've never hidden the fact that I am a huge Stuart Lancaster fan and right now with the World Cup on the horizon I wouldn't want anyone else in charge of our squad.
Focusing on the Training Squad itself, it is clear that England have an abundance of riches in the forwards and this is truly one of our USPs in comparison to any other squad in world rugby right now. England’s dominance up front was one of the greatest positives to come out of the Autumn tests and the reintroduction of 5 British and Irish Lions and a man that has 251 Club appearances, Nick Easter only adds to this. Nick’s recent form and the importance of having specialist 8s merits his selection and Stuart believes Nick will ‘add real value and experience’ at a time in which a few old heads will be critical given the pressure on the squad as a whole.
Another man whose ongoing inclusion is more than merited by his recent form is Jonathan Joseph, JJ was part of the autumn squad as injury cover for Manu, however this time his place is his own. Stuart clearly acknowledged the strides that JJ has taken to improve the areas of his game stating also he felt were lacking, notably the Bath man's defensive prowess, and it is clearly evident that Jonathan Joseph now looks like the player that we all expected him to be when he burst onto the scenes.
There are players now, JJ and Nick included, that have one aim and one aim only, to produce such form in camp that they give Stuart, Andy, Mike and Graham no choice but to force themselves into the starting line up. Stuart made it clear today that it is in camp is where the competition starts, it is the players’ time to shine and the place in which he and his coaches can get their hands on them. England are in such a fortunate position to have such depth in all areas of the park however we all know that now is the time for players to put on that shirt, make it their own and don’t let it go until the 31st October when the World Cup Final finishes. The coming few weeks are colossal, for individuals and for the team as a whole.
As a collective what must England deliver? It is no secret that a Grand Slam is what we all believe that this squad needs, the belief and confidence that it would bring is vital to reignite that upward trajectory. During the course of last year’s RBS 6 Nations we witnessed Robshaw and his men up their performance levels up a notch each time that they played together, the start against France wasn’t ideal but the manner in which they build game on game raised the bar of expectation. Now, in a World Cup year, they must do the same, their performance levels must increase however more than at any other point in time the results matter too…
