Eddie Jones has come to the early conclusion that his England squad need to get up to speed quickly in fitness terms if they are to compete with rugby’s Southern Hemisphere elite.
Last Saturday’s stop-start victory at Murrayfield in their RBS 6 Nations opener against Scotland was sufficient evidence for the new head coach that his players have to shape up before their three-Test tour of Australia in June.
He has responded by including two dynamic rookie forwards — Maro Itoje and Josh Beaumont — in a 25-man squad for the trip to Rome to face Italy.
There were growing indications last night that Harlequins’ back-rower Jack Clifford, who made his debut in Edinburgh, could start in a revamped pack. Given the prodigious impact made by Billy Vunipola in the win over Scotland, either Chris Robshaw or James Haskell is likely to make way for the newcomer.
England will take two travelling reserves to Rome, but Itoje and Beaumont are in the mix to feature in the 23, while Elliot Daly and Matt Kvesic have returned to their clubs.
Jones will demand high standards from his squad and fitness will be a target area. Reflecting on the Calcutta Cup game, he said: ‘Our first 20 was almost immaculate, then we fell away in the next 20. We got fatigued. Our skill level dropped off. We need to fix that second 20. That is the difference between Test and club rugby.’
Asked if he believes his England players are not fit enough, Jones thought carefully before saying: ‘They are fit enough to play Six Nations. We won’t be fit enough to play in Australia on hard tracks, definitely. It is game-specific fitness.
‘By the time we have finished this Six Nations we will be a fitter side than we are now. I’m not saying we are unfit at the moment, but there are periods of time in the game when we haven’t got the concentration and the application to be able to do what we want to do.
‘We will pick that up through training and by the end of the Six Nations we will be in pretty good fettle. The hope is the players understand where they need to be for international rugby and they will continue to do that with their clubs and we will top them up for the Australian tour.’
The more pressing business is to choose a team to take on Italy. Jones said: ‘We’re going to make some changes. We’ll pick a side more specifically for Italy and it will revolve around a number of positions. Our selection policy is to pick the best 23 and what I think is the best 23 to play Italy could be considerably different from the best 23 that played against Scotland.
‘It’s not related to how they played last weekend. We have to find depth, too. The one task at the weekend is to win the game — the second task is to develop options in each position. We need to go to the World Cup with three options in each position. We need to know clearly who is the first, second and third choice.
‘George Kruis, for instance, was outstanding at the weekend in the middle of the lineout. He called well, jumped well and scrummed well. We need to find out who is our second guy and who is our third guy and that’s the same for every position. We could conceivably pick a faster pack for Italy.’
Clifford is regarded by Jones as a contender at openside at this stage, but he sees him eventually switching to No 8.
The head coach eulogised about Haskell’s contribution against Scotland, saying: ‘He did a super job. He made 22 tackles. If Richie McCaw makes 22 tackles, everyone raves about him.’
As for Robshaw, the cricket fan added: ‘He was tidy — 10 overs for not much. It was good, he’ll only get better.’
Jones is adamant England’s mindset will be crucial in their quest to give Italy ‘a hiding’ on Sunday, saying: ‘If you look at a soccer analogy at the moment, how are Leicester City, a team who cost £22million, on top of the Premier League?
‘It’s all because of attitude and how hard they work for each other. It’s because the sum of that team is greater than the individuals.’
l Wales have given Dan Biggar an extra 24 hours to prove his fitness by delaying the announcement of their team to face Scotland.
Warren Gatland has opted to wait until tomorrow after the No 10 was sent for scans on an ankle injury sustained in Sunday’s 16-16 draw with Ireland.
Biggar is making ‘excellent progress’, with a WRU spokesman saying: ‘Indications are that the injury is not considered long term and decisions over his availability for this weekend will be made later in the week.’ – Daily Mail