Eddie Jones has named 34 players in a squad that will prepare for England’s first autumn international Test match against Argentina.
He named his squad on Thursday morning at Old Mutual Wealth’s office in central London and injury permitting all 34 individuals will convene together on Sunday to travel out to Portugal for a week of training. Following that a normal Test week will commence at Pennyhill Park with England’s first fixture arriving at the end of it on Saturday 11 November.
As always there had been plenty of conversation regarding the Australian’s potential squad and when it came to it one new feature caught a few eyes. That feature was having ‘apprentices’ within named within his squad - Marcus Smith and Zach Mercer are Eddie Jones' apprentices - and England's head coach explained exactly what they title means.
“They may play against Argentina but the likelihood is that they won’t. They are there to learn about the game and they’ve got a great opportunity to be part of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. We want to make sure that we give them the proper physical base, the proper tactical and social base to be long-term players.”
England’s head coach added that being named as 'apprentices' was as much about keeping both players' feet on their ground as it was providing a learning experience. The Australian has been in the game long enough to see plenty of individuals be announced as the next big thing only for their trajectories to slow due to eyes being taken off the ball. Now, that's not to say that both 'apprentices' have shown any overt outward signs of letting hype go to their heads, instead it's merely a possibility, and one that Eddie Jones is looking to avoid.
One key element that England’s head coach highlighted was the fact that he is going to be managing his players very carefully over this November series. In Portugal there will be a few different types of programme being followed by his squad. There will be a ‘normal programme’ for the majority and then ‘beach’ and ‘semi-beach’ programmes will run alongside that for others. Now beach doesn’t mean sunbathing and relaxing instead it’s adapting training as the Australian made clear.
“There will be different sorts of activities [in the beach programme] for three or four days – hard training but different training. We just feel that physically and mentally, not every player but a number of the players, need to be freshened up – some more than others.”
He also made it clear that this series we may see players coming in and out of his squad and that this set of 34 players have been selected solely to prepare for the first Test. When asked if all of his British & Irish Lions are in contention to play against Argentina the answer was a clear ‘no’ that was followed by the words, ‘some are a long way off’.
He also made it clear that this series we may see players coming in and out of his squad and that this set of 34 players have been selected solely to prepare for the first Test. When asked if all of his British & Irish Lions are in contention to play against Argentina the answer was a clear ‘no’ that was followed by the words, ‘some are a long way off’.
With a little under two years to go before Rugby World Cup 2019 Eddie Jones’ focus is fixed on that competition and right now he believes England are about '20% short of becoming the best team in the world’. In his mind one way to help to reduce, and ultimately eradicate, that gap will be through further developing their tactical nous and flexibility.
“We've had two good years and have a solid squad, a solid style of play and credits in the bank, it's time now to start developing the depth and adaptability of the team. We need to make the team more uncomfortable, not have everything nice and rosy, we need to have a bit of chaos in the house.”
In terms of that ‘chaos’, England’s head coach elaborated on that saying that it would be felt in the areas of 'training, preparation and certainty'. Once again he reiterated his desire to make his players 'uncomfortable' and wants them to get to Rugby World Cup 2019 being prepared for anything and thinking 'goodness me, we've made it'.
Right now the immediate task is to get this squad together on Sunday and fix their eyes on their fourth meeting with Argentina in 12 months. The desire is to make it four wins in four meetings and after that address squad selection again ahead of Australia.
In the head coach's words he has ‘close to 10 first-choice players out’ and that clearly presents opportunities for others. From this point on I believe that we’ll see the experience of the Australian come to the fore in terms of continuing to strike that balance between securing current results and working towards their longer-term goal of solidifying a squad for Rugby World Cup 2019 and beyond that winning it. All roads lead to Japan but first a training trip to Portugal and a three-Test series against Argentina, Austrlaia and Samoa awaits. England's next set of aututmn internationals should be fascinating trio of matches and personally I can't wait for them to commence.
Eddie Jones England Squad to prepare for Argentina:
Backs
Full backs
Mike Brown (Harlequins), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Jonny May (Leicester Tigers), Denny Solomona (Sale Sharks), Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Inside backs
Danny Care (Harlequins), Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Leicester Tigers), Piers Francis (Northampton Saints), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Alex Lozowski (Saracens), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Marcus Smith (Harlequins) *, Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Forwards
Back five
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks), Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby), Nathan Hughes (Wasps), Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), Maro Itoje (Saracens), George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Zach Mercer (Bath Rugby) *, Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs), Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby).
Front row
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby), Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers), Jamie George (Saracens), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), Matt Mullan (Wasps), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs)
*Apprentice players
