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'Extraordinary ability': Eddie Jones on his six new England picks
Eddie Jones has outlined his reasons for including each of the six uncapped players in his England squad that will assemble in Brighton next Monday for training ahead of the 2022 Guinness Six Nations campaign which gets underway with a February 5 trip to Scotland.
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It was October when the England coach named his original squad of 34 for the three-match Autumn Nations Series, a selection with a 19 forwards/15 backs split that assembled in Jersey for a week of training before playing Tonga, Australia and South Africa on successive November Saturdays at Twickenham.
Jones has now increased the resources at his disposal for next week’s England training camp by two players, picking a 36 that features 19 forwards and 17 backs. The exclusion of Sam Underhill, the revelation of a further injury setback for Manu Tuilagi and the appointment of Owen Farrell as squad skipper grabbed the headlines when the coach named his picks at 10.45am on Tuesday morning.
Fifteen minutes later, though, when he began his England squad announcement media briefing over a Zoom call, Jones dwelt on the reasons why he had included six uncapped players in a squad that will be looking to do much better than the fifth-place finish recorded in the 2021 Six Nations.
“They are in the squad because we feel they can make a contribution to the team,” ventured Jones after naming the uncapped Orlando Bailey, the 20-year-old Bath out-half, Alfie Barbeary, the 21-year-old back-rower from Wasps, Ollie Chessum, the 21-year-old lock/back row from Leicester, Tommy Freeman, the 20-year-old full-back from Northampton, Ollie Hassell-Collins, the recently-turned 23-year-old London Irish winger, and Luke Northmore, the 24-year-old Harlequins midfielder.
Even Will Greenwood is backing the soon-to-be 23-year-old… #LondonIrish #GallagherPrem #England #SixNations #LIRvEDIhttps://t.co/IRpJMJ4LBq
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 15, 2022
“There is no reason why they can’t. They are all good young players who showed enough at club level to suggest they can be successful at Test level. I’m looking forward to seeing how quickly they adapt. They all deserve the opportunity. They showed enough. I can go through them each individually if you like.”
ALFIE BARBEARY: “Alfie has not been picked on the back of his last game (for Wasps versus Toulouse), he has been picked on what we have seen over the last two seasons. He has got an extraordinary ability to break tackles and to carry the ball forward in close contact. He came in as a hooker and he has ended up as a No8 and he feels his best position is in the back row and we agree with him, so looking forward to seeing how he can move forward in Test rugby.”
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OLLIE CHESSUM: “He is a young back-rower cum lock. We see him in the same sort of mould as Courtney Lawes, so we are looking for someone with a similar sort of skill set as Courtney. He has got good lineout skills. He can carry, he can hit, he has got plenty of energy and vigour.”
OLLIE HASSELL-COLLINS: “He is a big, strong winger who breaks tackles, came through the sevens.”
TOMMY FREEMAN: “We believe he can play full-back or wing and possibly 13. He has got a natural feel for the game.”
ORLANDO BAILEY: “He has done very well in a (Bath) team that has been struggling. Can take the ball to the line, is a strong defender and can play ten, twelve or 15. We are particularly looking for those multi-skilled backs players who are going to be important, not only in this Covid era but going forward towards the World Cup.”
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LUKE NORTHMORE: “He is another one out of Cardiff Metropolitan University. It seems to be a popular breeding ground for Test match rugby players. (Alex) Dombrandt set the bar there and now Northmore is similarly out of there. He runs strong lines, carries well through contact. Has got good footwork.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Ever so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to comments