Brute force sidelined as Eddie Jones sets out to make England the most dominant team in world rugby

Revolution: Elliot Daly of Wasps (above) is one of Jones's fresh choices
Getty
Chris Jones13 January 2016

New coach Eddie Jones today significantly changed the make-up of the England squad, bringing in players who run into space rather than bodies, which is exactly how he made Japan such a spectacular success at last year’s World Cup.

He has rejected the defensive excellence of men such as Brad Barritt and Luther Burrell and opted for the more attacking skills of young backs like Elliot Daly, Sam Hill and Ollie Devoto.

Barritt was Stuart Lancaster’s captain of defence and brought much-needed steel and organisation to the squad. However, he lacked that spark of attacking brilliance that opens up defences. Jones can recall Manu Tuilagi when he is fit during the Six Nations for true X-factor.

Jones has gone for only two scrum-halves — Danny Care and Ben Youngs — ignoring Joe Simpson, of Wasps, who plays with real tempo and is a significant running threat.

Chris Ashton will get another chance on the right wing. Under Lancaster the Saracens flyer, who has scored 19 tries in 39 games for England, was seen as defensively suspect rather than a potential match winner. Ashton, just 28, felt he was never given a fair crack under the former regime.

It would be wrong to see the changes as Jones merely drafting young talent into an ageing England squad because Lancaster was not afraid to give youth its head. The former head coach was responsible for launching the Test careers of players such as Billy and Mako Vunipola, Owen Farrell, George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Joe Marler, Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell.

He also handed Mike Brown the starting No15 jersey.

Jones has backed the RFU’s controversial rule on players who operate with French clubs being ignored unless there is an “exceptional circumstance” which appears to be when hell freezes over.

Toulon flanker Steffon Armitage was ignored for the World Cup and unless he chooses to return to the Premiership, he will not be part of Jones’s plans and the same goes for Clermont full-back Nick Abendanon and team-mate Dave Strettle, who arrived from Sarries this season.

Up front, the axe has removed some of the more experienced players from England’s ranks, putting even more pressure on the youngsters to hit the ground running in the Six Nations.

Rugby Union: Frozen in Time

1/14

Lions lock Geoff Parling, one of the most reliable line-out forwards in Europe, has gone along with the injury-prone Ben Morgan, one of the Premiership’s best ball carriers. Matt Kvesic, of Gloucester, has got the vote ahead of Saracens’ Will Fraser.

Morgan’s omission will be seen as a clear indication that Wasps’ Nathan Hughes will become the next big England ball carrier when he qualifies on residency in June and is a certain pick for the three-Test summer tour of Australia.

That trip was always going to be vital in Jones’s strategic planning on the road to Japan in 2019. For now, it will be a case of identifying the 23-man squad that can go to Scotland and win at Murrayfield on February 6 and there are enough old hands left to allow the head coach to feel confident of being truly competitive in his first Six Nations.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in