THE biggest improvement in Eddie Jones' management of the England squad has been his recognition that competition for places, sparked by rewarding consistently good club form, is an essential component for any international team with world champion ambitions.
It has been a long time coming, with Jones guilty of giving some players who have been regularly under par too many free passes to Test selection – George Ford, the Vunipola brothers, Ben Youngs, and Kyle Sinckler among them.
This has been compounded because at the same time he has ignored the consistently strong club performances of others, with Alex Dombrandt, Dan Robson, and Harry Williams at the top of the list.
However, this autumn Jones launched a new regime of fierce competition for places by dropping Ford and both Vunipolas, and the uplift for the England squad has been immediate. Not only has Marcus Smith provided an alternative to the 10-12 axis of Ford and Owen Farrell, but also Dombrandt has confirmed that he is a powerful, skilful No.8 capable of supplanting Billy Vunipola, and Ellis Genge has improved his scrummaging to press his case at loosehead.
The flip side is that Ford and the Vunipolas have been galvanised. Ford has been outstanding after finally becoming the ringmaster at Leicester, Billy Vunipola is getting back in gear after playing the entire match for seven of his nine Premiership starts and scoring four tries, while Mako Vunipola has also raised his intensity.
It means Jones suddenly has options in positions he had turned into sinecures – and it is all down to recognising the importance of true competition for places.
