The Eccentricity of Eddie Jones

You’ve got to love Eddie Jones.

I guess he has earned the right to do what he wants following England’s run to the World Cup final last year, but Jones continues to baffle with some of his selections and comments.

In fact he appears to delight in doing precisely the opposite of what people think he should do.

So, for instance, when picking a squad to complete the 2020 Six Nations and then go forward into the Autumn Nations Cup:

-       He has selected one specialist number 8 (Billy Vunipola) in a training squad of 36, ignoring the form and abilities of both Alex Dombrandt and, in particular, Sam Simmonds (who has recently been voted European Rugby Player of the Year)

-       He has failed to include arguably the Premiership’s best scrum half, Ben Spencer, in the training squad, persisting with the likes of Ben Youngs and Willie Heinz who, to put it politely, certainly aren’t getting any younger (or, to be less charitable, any better)

-       At fly half he has left out Joe Simmonds who, aged only 24, has just captained Exeter Chiefs to the Premiership and European Champions Cup glory and who looks oven-ready for international rugby. I have no issue with the selection of the very talented Jacob Umaga, but to have him in ahead of Simmonds suggests very much that Jones is thinking rather more about protecting Owen Farrell’s status than finding the best player for the job. And for Eddie to suggest that Northampton’s woefully out-of-form fullback, George Furbank, could be considered as an international fly half is just mischief-making nonsense.

Look, I know Jones can’t pick everyone (and the amount of talent England has at its disposal in the back row, for instance, is getting ridiculous). And I do appreciate that preparation ahead of Saturday’s game against Italy has been a short and disrupted, meaning that it is more likely that England will for the most part feature the tried and tested ahead of experimental selections this weekend.

But to pick a wider training squad which most would agree clearly does not constitute the best 36 players available to England, and to not give players who have been in fantastic form the opportunity to show what they can contribute to their country, is just a little perverse. 

Still, such eccentricity is what we have come to expect from Eddie Jones and to date it hasn’t, on the whole, served him too badly…

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was