#360view: New England coach Eddie Jones could regret leaving out Cipriani from squad

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • New England coach Eddie Jones has selected seven uncapped players for the Six Nations.

    Eddie Jones has never been one for convention, and while his first England squad is more conservative than expected, the selection of seven uncapped players will leave fans excited ahead of the Six Nations.

    Starting with the omissions, the most obvious absentee is Leicester hooker Tom Youngs. Earlier this week Jones expressed his intention to build his team around the set piece and defence: two fundamental areas that seemed to be neglected in the Stuart Lancaster era.

    While Youngs is undoubtedly England’s most effective hooker in the loose, his paltry offering at the lineout has rendered him a liability in the new regime, and Jones is absolutely right to wield the axe.

    With many of England’s critics at the World Cup highlighting their lack of creativity in the backline it is also a brave move from Jones to leave out the mercurial Danny Cipriani.

    The Sale fly-half has won over many critics since his move back to the Premiership and has left many Premiership defences mesmerized with deft footballing skills and searing pace that Jones’s two fly-half selections George Ford and Owen Farrell could only dream of.

    It is unusual for a coach to select only two scrum-halves and two fly-halves, but this would suggest Jones is less confident about England’s capability in the front row, where he will have increased options with six props and three hookers.

    Out of the newcomers to the Elite Player Squad, the selections of Elliot Daly, Maro Itoje and Jack Clifford tell their own story about what Jones wants from his players.

    Wasps outside centre Daly has been the form centre in the Premiership this year and combines rock solid defence with sublime running angles that have seen him break the line with devastating ease this year.

    With injury-prone Jonathan Joseph also included in the squad, England finally have genuine competition between two specialists in this position.

    In Itoje and Clifford England have consecutive U-20 World Cup winning captains in their ranks and two men used to winning on the big stage whose leadership qualities Jones will no doubt look to employ with a look ahead to the next four years.

    Elsewhere in the back row Chris Robshaw has benefited from Tom Wood’s lack of form, who has been dropped from the squad entirely. In recent months the Harlequins man has produced some stunning form as a blindside flanker but question marks remain whether he will be able shake off his recent failures in the England jersey.

    At the World Cup England suffered as a result of not selecting a specialist ball-winning flanker, and it is therefore a surprise that James Haskell made Jones’s squad, while Matt Kvesic (an almost identical player to the irrepressive David Pocock) will only be used as an injury replacement for Exeter’s Dave Ewers.

    Eddie Jones’s first priority in this Six Nations is to re-establish England’s dominance in the fundamental areas of the game, in the scrum and lineout, where they have traditionally been so strong.

    Jones has picked the perfect squad to achieve this with a blend of youthful exuberance being marshaled by older heads in key positions.

    However, with results less of a priority in this Six Nations with a view to building an improved playing style in the long-term, time will tell whether Jones has missed a trick in not giving Cipriani his chance this February.

    Recommended