Eddie Jones has plenty of problems on his plate as he tries to prepare England for the Six Nations — and the absence of his captain, Owen Farrell, is top of an ever-growing list.
Farrell will miss the whole of this year’s championship and, while some have questioned his form over the past 12 months, the 30-year-old’s leadership and ability to deliver in the biggest games will be sorely missed.
Farrell’s ankle issue, described as a “freak injury” at the end of a Saracens training session, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jones’s problems — and he must be wondering what he has done to anger the rugby gods.
Wings Anthony Watson and Jonny May are due to miss the whole of the Six Nations, while centre Manu Tuilagi is 50-50 to feature. Fellow centre Henry Slade has not trained this week, nor has Farrell’s likely replacement as captain, Courtney Lawes, while prop Joe Marler is another absentee after being struck down by Covid-19 — again.
Those three, along with lock Jonny Hill, should be fit in time to return for next week’s opener against Scotland at Murrayfield, but if selection headaches were not keeping Jones up at night, then a fire outside England’s team hotel on Tuesday evening, which forced them to evacuate, will have certainly done the trick.
“Maro [Itoje] did a great job in the pub, driving the team communication,” said Jones, giving an insight into how the fire disrupted England’s plans. “I don’t think he did a great job with the pints, but because we had a fire outside our hotel we had to evacuate.
“We were all about to start an important session for the players, which is their team communication, where they talk about how they operate with our squad psyche. It was a really good example of being adaptable and, again, a really good example of how we’re trying to devolve the leadership of the team and have more people involved in how we’re trying to create a stronger team.”
Adaptable was the word Jones kept coming back to at Wednesday’s Six Nations launch — and the absence of Farrell will be a true test of whether this team can react to adversity.
England’s dramatic 27-26 win over world champions South Africa in November, achieved in the absence of Farrell, certainly showed they can, and there is an argument pushed by some that England are a better side without their captain.
The frustration for Jones, however, is that he cannot recreate the backline from that day, as both May and Tuilagi are out. The absence of Tuilagi, who thrived at 12 next to Marcus Smith, is a particular blow.
At Harlequins, fly-half Smith has impressed with the big ball-carrying Andre Esterhuizen alongside him, and England could go for something similar by using Mark Atkinson.
The alternative, however, is to put Slade at 12. Such a solution will mean England can play with two front-footed playmakers, which suits Jones’s new approach to an attacking side.
To have the kind of fluidity Jones craves in attack is all about partnerships and, if he wants free-flowing rugby, then sprinkling as much of Harlequins’ Premiership-winning team into the side is not a bad solution.
Alex Dombrandt has gone from strength to strength at No8 this season, and his link-up with Smith can be devastating. Deploying Joe Marchant at 13 seems wise, too, given he and Smith have an excellent understanding as fellow Quins academy graduates.
Ultimately, we’d like to be a team that runs itself.
If Jones wants to go all the way, then he could even start rookie Luke Northmore — who has been excellent at 13 for Quins this season — and shift Marchant to the wing.
That, however, may be a step too far for Jones and having someone of Jack Nowell’s experience in the back-three will be valuable.
“We’ve got four campaigns until the World Cup and, by the time we get to the World Cup, we want to be a team where the players have a responsibility to drive and run the team — and it’s their team,” said Jones. “Ultimately, we’d like to be a team that runs itself.”
This year’s Six Nations will tell us how close Jones is to achieving that aim.
