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Eddie Jones selects side packed with attacking prowess to make nation smile again

England's coach Eddie Jones (R) attends an England rugby training session - AFP
England's coach Eddie Jones (R) attends an England rugby training session - AFP

In these troubled times, Eddie Jones has urged his players to make the nation smile again and the England head coach’s selection to face Italy on Saturday appears to reflect his inspirational rallying call.

Not since 2015 have England gone into a Six Nations “super Saturday” finale chasing points and tries with the title on the line and Jones has selected a side stacked with attacking prowess more than capable of sacking Rome.

To do so, Jones has, in part, attempted to tap into the Exeter winning mentality by turning to Henry Slade to be his second playmaker at inside centre and also hand a debut to the club’s outstanding lock, Jonny Hill, even though both have joined the camp only this week following their successive Champions Cup and Gallagher Premiership triumphs – and celebrations.

“My experience of coaching players who have played in big finals such as the Premiership final and the European Cup final is that they come in full of beans,” said Jones.

“It’s like a batsman, you score a hundred in one game, a hundred in the next and the coach comes in and says, ‘we’re going to sit you out next game’. And he looks at you as if you’ve got two heads.

“Why would you want to be left out when you’re in good form? You want to play, like any sportsman you want to keep playing when you’re in good form and he’s in good form. He wants to play, he loves playing for England, so it wasn’t really something we had to think about too greatly.”

Six Nations 2020: England team to face Italy
Six Nations 2020: England team to face Italy

As for Hill, Jones sees the 26-year-old as the enforcer alongside Maro Itoje. It is a tough call on Joe Launchbury, who has been the Wasps talisman since the Covid-19 restart, but perhaps an indication of how much last week’s final defeat by Exeter took it out of him. Hill played only 54 minutes, while Launchbury did not come off at all. There is no place either for Wasps flanker Jack Willis, but his opportunity will come this autumn.

“With George [Kruis] going, we needed a centre-of-the-line-out jumper, so we have been looking with great diligence for that, a big guy that can win you the ball in the middle of the line-out and also be very good at setting up mauls and disrupting mauls,” Jones added.

“He has had a great run for Exeter. We brought him into the England team for the 2018 South Africa tour. He was a little bit off the mark there, but he has continued to develop and, in just a couple of days training, he has shown he has learned a lot over the past 12 months and he has some big shoes to fill there in George Kruis, who has been outstanding for us. He gets the first opportunity to fill those shoes.”

If Hill is named in an otherwise relatively straightforward selection in the pack, with Billy Vunipola fit again to make his first appearance for England since the World Cup final, and Tom Curry returning to the blindside flank with Sam Underhill at seven, it is the back line where Jones has stacked his deck.

Rugby Nerd REFERRAL (article)
Rugby Nerd REFERRAL (article)

Despite suggesting on Monday that the need for a distributor at inside centre was becoming redundant, given the impact of increasing speed of defensive lines, Jones has picked two playmakers, with captain Owen Farrell switching to fly-half and Slade making his first start at inside centre for England since November 2017 alongside Jonathan Joseph.

Since 2018, Jones has overwhelmingly favoured a ball-carrying presence in his midfield but, with Manu Tuilagi injured, he is backing Joseph’s pace to trouble the outside fringes of the Italian defence rather than the power of Ollie Lawrence to go through the middle. Rome has been a happy hunting ground for Joseph, who scored a hat-trick of tries there in 2016 and Italy’s confidence is fragile from their heavy defeat in Dublin.

The selection of George Furbank at full-back may go against the grain in terms of form but, given Elliot Daly’s injury, it allows Jones to start his two most potent attacking threats in their best positions on the wing, with England requiring a four-try bonus point win and a margin of victory of significantly greater than 23 to put the pressure on leaders Ireland in Paris.

Jones insisted Furbank had been their best performer in preparations so far, and that he was also being considered as the backup fly-half along with Slade, should Farrell pick up an injury.

“I think his authority at the back has been improving steadily. I saw it at the end of the club season with Northampton, just that every ball that goes in the air he wants to own,” Jones said. “We saw it in training the other day, he was like a 20-20 boundary rider. He raced from 30 metres back, caught a high ball that was swirling in the wind on the half volley, diving full length. That sort of disciplined authority at full-back is what we are looking for. He brings that to the team.”

It will be an emotional afternoon for Ben Youngs, who will become only the second England men’s player to reach 100 caps and the second-most capped player of all time behind Jason Leonard (114 caps), a remarkable achievement for the Leicester scrum-half, who first made his debut against Scotland in March 2010, while Jamie George will also reach the 50-cap milestone.

The bench, in contrast, has a distinctively inexperienced look, with uncapped trio Tom Dunn, Lawrence and Ollie Thorley are named, alongside scrum-half Dan Robson. Yet with props Ellis Genge and Will Stuart joined by Charlie Ewels and Ben Earl, their impact should be explosive – since 2016 England have outscored Italy in the second half by an average of 29 points to three.

Yes, this is a squad with more than enough firepower and nous to cut loose again, and if they can do so, England may just get the nation smiling again.