Eddie Jones and England now enter that difficult second year of their relationship. Sure, the first twelve months are great; it’s all going out on dates to win a series in Australia, or staying in to beat South Africa and everyone in Europe. Oh and Australia again. You get in bed together and everything comes up Grand Slams and every joke, like selecting Teimana Harrison to replace him after twenty minutes, is so funny and charming and, oh aren’t we just so good together! You hang up. No, you hang up the phone, silly!
Now it’s time for year two, when you start to notice the stuff that winds you up. Why do you flick the channels on the TV all the time? Why do you never pick two proper scoring wingers? Do you have to talk through your nose like that? You’re not as good as you think you are, you know; Ireland are a real team and they score proper tries. It’s not my fault we’ve not played New Zealand! Yeah, well, you never do take criticism well, and let’s see how you do with injuries, and pick your clothes up off the floor will you! Oh, shut up! No, you shut up!
It’s this sort of potentially vexatious atmosphere along with injuries to key personnel that the current Grand Slam team and coach will be looking to win the tournament once again. The Vunipolas are unavailable: Mako so much a part of the reconstructed scrum, Billy the man responsible for more carrying metres than the rest of the pack put together and most of the backs as well. Also, Chris Robshaw, the former captain and oppressively dull yet effective anchor at six won’t be there with his industry and all-round contribution.
Joe Marler will come into the front row and hopefully keep his ethnicity opinions to himself, the monstrous Nathan Hughes will continue at eight and the incomparable Maro Itoje will likely move to six, with one of either Joe Launchbury or Courtney Lawes asked to partner George Kruis in the boilerhouse and Tom Wood will continue to operate at seven in the continued absence of James “James Haskell” Haskell. These are not poor replacements by anyone’s definition, but it does upset a settled unit and the likely props off the bench are raw. This will certainly be a challenge in the Dublin cauldron on the final weekend
The backs are less affected, with only Anthony Watson of the 2016 invincibles out for probably the whole tournament. Jack Nowell of Exeter, and man on a run of form so hot he could be used as a welding torch will come in. The form of Ben Youngs coming from an abysmal season at Leicester is troubling as is the continued diffidence of George Ford, but their England form in the face of indifferent outings for their clubs has always been something of a pleasant surprise under Jones and England fans will be hoping that continues.
Despite their amazing achievement under Jones so far, England remain a side that give you the feeling they are still in the phase of their game development which is more moving away from conceding tries rather than moving towards scoring them via a pattern. In last year’s Six Nations this wasn’t an issue as form of opposition was of less concern. This time out Jones should be very concerned about Ireland, worried about the unknown quantity of a new French setup after a year under Guy Noves in the opening weekend, and maybe even a little troubled about having to go to Cardiff.
Defending well and hoping for a mistake or Owen Farrell’s kicking won’t be enough this year and their forwards surely won’t be as dominant.
Prediction: 2nd – Ireland will just be that little bit too polished this time out
Likely Headline: “Ford’s Focus”, “ITOJE KNOCKS THEM TO TO-MARO!
The post RBS 6 Nations 2017 Preview: England and the difficult second year appeared first on Blood & Mud.
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