To go deep into the Rugby World Cup, England will need their back-row forwards to carry 15 to 20 times a match — and to get over the gainline every single time.
That is why I thought the inclusion of just one specialist No8 in Billy Vunipola was the biggest surprise omission from head coach Steve Borthwick’s 33-man England squad for the fast-approaching tournament.
Harlequins’ Alex Dombrandt had been a regular performer in the England squad, so can count himself very unlucky not to have made the final cut.
France and Ireland are the world’s outstanding sides right now, and that power No8 game is a key element of what they do. You need your No8 to be a dominant ball-carrier for 60 to 70 minutes of a Test match.
Vunipola can clearly do that — and to some effect at his very best — but the Saracens star has only just recovered from knee surgery in April. Ben Earl and Lewis Ludlam will have to carry the load to support Vunipola in France.
A lot of people will have been disappointed with England’s result and performance in the defeat by Wales last weekend, but having stepped away and looked at again, my view is that the gameplan was designed perhaps solely for that fixture.
England did not show too much and were perhaps just given a basic framework to follow. The huge cloud of World Cup selection will have made things very, very difficult.
We’ll be able to judge far more clearly what England will look like across the next three weeks.
They will not show all their cards just yet, they will build and build and work away behind the scenes to make sure that, come September, they are totally ready to go.
