Eddie Jones urged to pick backrower to face Springboks, and it's not Brad Shields
Eddie Jones is being urged to take young Wasps flanker Jack Willis on England’s three test tour of South Africa as the head coach faces a backlash over plans to parachute Hurricanes captain Brad Shields into the squad that will be named at Twickenham on Thursday.
Willis, 21-years-old, is already operating in the Wasps backrow where Shields will play next season when he officially moves from Super rugby to the Premiership, but with Jones missing key ball carriers like Wasps Nathan Hughes and Courtney Lawes (Northampton) for the South African tour, the Hurricanes flanker is set to be released for the England trip and then return to New Zealand to complete the Super Rugby campaign.
This has angered Sir Clive Woodward who insists it is wrong to make Shields a special case ahead of homegrown talent. Shields qualifies through his parents and Woodward said in his Daily Mail column: “He (Shields) is fully entitled to declare for England, but that doesn’t mean others should be brushed aside in the stampede to select him.
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“Why not promote from the English game, the Premiership and the RFU’s outstanding Under-20 system? The back row needs some surgery but England have loads of options — Jamie Gibson at Northampton, the Curry twins at Sale and Jack Willis at Wasps to name but a few.”
Dai Young, the Wasps director of rugby, is the man who convinced Shields to join Wasps on a lucrative contract and fill the void created by the departure of England stalwart James Haskell who is still searching for a club willing to meet a salary of around £300,000 a season.
Young watched Willis deliver another impressive performance in the 39-22 win over Newcastle which saw Wasps finish third in the Premiership and set up a play-off semi-final at Saracens. Willis wore the No8 jersey and despite the sweltering conditions was still winning turnovers in the final minutes at Kingston Park.
Young said: “Jack has been the break through player for us this season and is performing every week and building all the time. He is still so young and is playing at a level well above his age with good physicality in defence and carries really well in attack. He is also very strong over the ball at the breakdown and I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him in the white shirt of England in the summer. If he does then he really deserves it.”
Willis has been shortlisted for the Sanlam Young Player of the Year Award in the Rugby Players’ Association end of season awards along with Ruan Ackermann (Gloucester Rugby), Josh Adams ( Worcester Warriors), Jake Polledri (Gloucester Rugby) and Sam Simmonds( Exeter Chiefs) to highlight the strides he has made in this debut season.
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Former England World Cup winner Will Greenwood helped select Willis as the Aviva Premiership Player of the Month in February and said: “The Wasps back row as a collective has been epic – but the headline act is the kid Jack Willis at six. Jack had perhaps the finest individual performance of the season in the league away at Harlequins. He helped himself to Harlequins ball all afternoon no matter what juggernauts were looking to excavate him from the ruck. Tall man gets low and doesn’t move. Dai Young knows he has found an absolute gem.”
Young knows it will take another big performance from Willis and the rest of the team to defeat European Champions Cup holders Sarries on their own ground to reach a second successive Premiership final. He added: “We know we are going to have to be better in the semi-final and history tells us that it is very difficult to go anywhere at this stage and get a result.
“James Haskell has a sore toe which caused him problems when running but we don’t expect that to be too bad while Tommy Taylor has a bit of a medical strain and we will wait to assess it. We expect them and Danny Cipriani (ankle) to be fit for the semi-final and the big thing for me is to go to Allianz Park and play.
“We want to take the game to Sarries and we have the attack to cause them problems but the challenge we face is do we have a set piece to stand up to their power and the defence needed? Our Achilles heel this season has been the transition from attack to defence – it has been poor at times.”
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
6 Go to commentsSpot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
6 Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
6 Go to commentsGood riddance
1 Go to commentswel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
6 Go to commentsHard to disagree with the 5 points - with the exception that Wilson should be a squad member but, depending on the other loose forward selections, is not yet a shoo-in. McReight is. Aussie is looking a lot better this year and JS has some selection options. Also, Havili’s tendency to get caught, charged down is also a liability at times but he seemed focused (mostly) and is definitely a consideration for utility back-up. Still feel Reihana is a better prospect at 1st five for Saders.
6 Go to commentsYeah nah, still not sure on Havili tbh. Even though I’m a Crusaders fan through and through I’d be stunned if Razor considers him after seeing some of the stunning talent coming through up North.
6 Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
6 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
6 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
6 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
6 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
5 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
5 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
238 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to comments