Perfect match for Eddie to unleash his new generation

NICK CAIN SAYS ENGLAND MUST BLOOD THEIR NEW BOYS AGAINST TONGA

IF England were playing Tonga’s top team of players at Twickenham on Saturday then Eddie Jones would be justified in picking his first-string side against the ‘Ikale Tahi’ (Sea Eagles). The quality of the Tongan globe-trotters who have been adopted by other nations explains the cautionary note.

The 170 South Pacific islands that constitute the kingdom of Tonga have a population of only 107,000 – the same as Woking (Surrey) – and yet, since the late Jonah Lomu took the world by storm at the 1995 World Cup, they have earned a reputation for producing more Rugby Union supermen per square inch than any other plot of land on earth.

Selecting an experimental England team against a team of Tongan parentage, with a starting line-up featuring Mako and Billy Vunipola (England), Taulupe Faletau (Wales), Malakai Fekitoa, Charles Piutau, Richie Mo’unga, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Vaea Fifita, Shannon Frizell (all New Zealand), Tolu Latu and Lopeti Timani (Australia) would be asking for trouble.

However, that wish-list Tonga team will bear no resemblance to the one that lines up against England in the first of the Autumn Internationals, especially in terms of firepower, as was painfully evident during the summer when they were annihilated 102-0 by New Zealand.

Although Tongan ranks will be stiffened by star turns now plying their trade in France’s Top 14 like full-back Telusa Veainu (Stade Francais), scrumhalf Tane Takalua (Toulon), and tank-like loosehead Ben Tameifuna (Bordeaux-Begles), they are not miracle workers.

It is why England head coach Jones should waste no more time delaying the blooding of a new generation of international hopefuls he has brought into the squad this autumn. It is sink or swim for the 13 Red Rose newcomers, because by refusing to make changes in the two years since losing the 2019 World Cup final Jones has to fast-track them.

His late rebuild for the 2023 World Cup has to start with the bold move of picking a largely experimental England team against Tonga, and assessing the performance of his new players first, and laying the foundations for the teams to play Australia and South Africa second.

Jones will, for example, find out more about Marcus Smith’s ability to transition to the big arena if he plays outside another newcomer like Harry Randall rather than an old stager like Ben Youngs.

Test: Eddie Jones

Smith has already passed the audition after his summer starts against the USA and Canada, and then joining the Lions tour. Add to that steering Harlequins to last season’s Premiership title, and he does not need Youngs to hold his hand.

It would also make sense to see Raffi Quirke as the bench back-up to Randall, so that Jones can get a good look at both his new scrum-halves, and whether they can bring a new dynamic – particularly as he needs no reminders about Youngs, having picked him for most of the last six years.

Despite the praise Owen Farrell has heaped on Smith this week, including how much he is looking forward to playing alongside him, Jones should leave his captain out of the match 23 for the Tonga encounter.

“It would also make sense to see Quirke as the bench back-up to Randall”

There are four good reasons.

1) It is important to see how Smith copes with the responsibility of being a front-line Test goal-kicker and tactical general without Farrell looking over his shoulder.

2) It would remove the impediment of Maro Itoje’s unstinting loyalty to Farrell as a captain and clubmate by giving him the chance to skipper the side in his own right. It goes without saying that there is no guaran- tee that Farrell will remain injury-free or in peak form in the two years leading into France 2023.

3) It gives the England coach the opportunity to pick a team against Tonga in which nine of the starting 15 are from his new intake since the 2021 Six Nations, and 12 of the match 23. If he fails to seize the moment he will be guilty of window-dressing rather than giving players a genuine opportunity. This has happened too often on his watch, as Dan Robson, Ollie Lawrence, Ben Earl and Paolo Odogwu have discovered recently, and Ben Spencer, Alex Goode and Harry Williams found out before them.

4) It is imperative that Jones develops midfield strength-in-depth for the first time, so that he is not over reliant on either Farrell or Manu Tuilagi in the way he has been until now.

Tonga is an ideal proving ground for the late career promotion of Gloucester inside centre Mark Atkinson, and also another chance to see if Joe Marchant can live up to his burgeoning reputation with Harlequins by bringing the same impact at international level. Again, Jones is fully appraised of Henry Slade’s merits at outside centre, so there is room for manoeuvre in selection.

Big chance: Callum Chick

PICTURES: Getty Images

Joe Marchant

There will also be no better opportunity this season for the England head coach to test the mettle of his impressive new back three trio of Freddie Steward, Adam Radwan, and Tommy Freeman. Leicester’s Steward (6ft 5ins) and Northampton’s Freeman (6ft 2ins) are both big men with the facility to make an impact at either fullback or wing.

Radwan’s electric footwork and red-hot form for Newcastle should make his selection on the wing a formality. By the same token Steward has earned initial rights to the 15 shirt with the all-round quality of his game as the Tigers backstop over the last six months, but the way Freeman has forced his way into the reckoning in a Saints squad with plenty of back three competition over the same period has also attracted attention.

It must be a relief for Jones that the security he enjoyed in 2016 with Mike Brown in the England full-back shirt could be returning with a vengeance, because this duo have the size and athleticism to command the aerial combat in a way that neither Elliot Daly nor George Furbank – nor Anthony Watson-were able to.

Max Malins has his supporters at full-back, but despite his recent glut of tries for Saracens, and the array of footballing skills he possesses, he is in the awkward Situation of being a utility who can play anywhere in the backline, bar scrum-half.

Malins should have a long chat to his injured teammate Daly about the pros and cons of being a utility, with its no-man’s-land pit-falls of rarely playing in your best Position at Test level – in Daly’s case outside centre.

The lure of having a player who can cover almost every backline Position is irresistible for most coaches, and it also explains why Malins is on the bench I have picked here -and why Furbank, another Jack of all trades, keeps him Company.

However, the best insurance for both of them in their international careers is to become a recognised master in one position before going freelance – and it is not overwhelmingly obvious that full-back is the best bet for either of them, because they are not aerial aces.

Electric footwork: Adam Radwan

Dynamism: Nic Dolly

Into the reckoning: Tommy Freeman

“The problem position for England is at tighthead where you can least afford weakness”

Both Malins and Furbank showed promise at fly-half before being switched to full-back – and going forward Saracens will have to find a replacement for Farrell, while Northampton will have to do likewise to fill Dan Biggar’s boots.

If Malins opted for 10 there would be the added benefit of Smith, and Farrell, having competition for the England shirt – although the Saracens man is also talented enough to challenge Slade and Marchant at outside centre.

Picking Malins as an international wing is more problematic because, although he is a fast, he is more of a ghosting runner than one with the blistering acceleration or power of many top finishers – and chances at Test level will be much rarer than some of the runins he has scored for his club.

Try-scoring feats bring us to the England forwards to start against the Tongans. Another prolific try-scorer in the early part of the season has been Leicester’s new Australian-born hooker, Nic Dolly. He has done a passable impression of Neil Back by steering the big units in front of him in the right direction to exploit weaknesses in the opposition’s driving maul defences, and injecting dynamism at the right moment.

Starting Leicester skipper Ellis Genge at loosehead alongside Dolly brings club co-ordination into the picture, and if they can put a Tiger in the tank that drives the England maul it would be a valuable weapon against Tonga. It would also make sense for another of their Leicester teammates, George Martin, to get more exposure alongside Itoje in the second row, rather than learning his international trade as a sometime No.6.

The problem position for England at the scrum is at tighthead, which is where you can least afford a weakness. Will Stuart has to lift himself above the Bath mulch and start making the transition from promising to commanding – not least because Kyle Sinckler’s running and handling skills cannot mask his problem of giving away crucial penalties when the heat is on at the scrum. His knee to ground in the final Lions Test against South Africa was a recent case in point. Stuart and Sinckler have to take the next step this autumn, or Jones will have to consider rapid promotion for the likes of Joe Heyes (Leicester), Nic Schonert (Sale) or Ehren Painter (Northampton).

In the back row Alex Dombrandt has been in the shadows too long, and is the starting No.8, and the openside flanker shirt should go to Lewis Ludlum, below, not just because he is in fine fettle, but because Jones has enough information on Tom Curry and Sam Underhill to start a library – and neither are at the top of their game.

The amount of rugby that Courtney Lawes played over the summer means that at blindside he can go the whole hog and start Newcastle’s Callum Chick.

Lawes is an inspirational carrier and tackler, but with the battles to come against Australia and South Africa there is no good reason to include him in a game against Tonga that England should be well equipped to win.

You could argue that this leaves England short of experienced leaders, so, with Itoje seemingly on his own, let’s consider the leadership issue. Chick was captain of the England U20s in 2016, just as Itoje was in 2014, when England won the World Junior Championship. Ludlum is captain of Northampton this season, as is Genge at Leicester. Dombrandt has captained Harlequins, and Smith has been the Premiership champions’ tactical general.

If these career landmarks are to the mean anything they have to be transferable to international level, so it is time for England to find out if they are – and against a second tier side like Tonga it should not be considered a risky venture when the coach enjoys the depth of playing resources and preparation time Jones does.

A couple of weeks ago when ‘Fast Eddie’ announced his autumn squad, leaving out luminaries like the Vunipola brothers and George Ford, he questioned their hunger to meet the demands of another World Cup campaign.

In doing so he put down a new marker by introducing true competition for places in his England squad after years of depending on his ‘undroppables’.

Jones should not stop there. By selecting most of the new players he has promoted to the squad for the autumn opener against Tonga he will be reinforcing the message that he will give them the chance to prove themselves in an England environment in which merit matters more than reputation.

Nothing galvanises a squad more than that.