Real value of England training camp lies behind the headlines
England head coach Eddie Jones announced his preseason training squad for the 2018/19 season on Thursday morning, with the group of 44 players set to meet up on Saturday for a three-day training camp.
📋SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT
Eddie Jones has named a 44-man training squad ahead of the new season.
Find out more: ➡️ https://t.co/EraoaYbJJF pic.twitter.com/jiomjbbgPi
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) August 2, 2018
The group is headlined by two eye-catching additions in the form of Chris Ashton and Michael Rhodes, with Ashton returning to English rugby this summer and South African-born Rhodes completing his three-year residency period just last month.
A number of England regulars over the last few years who didn’t tour South Africa with the squad in June have missed out on selection for the camp, such as Danny Care and Dan Cole, whilst others have been left with their clubs to focus on preseason and preparations for the Gallagher Premiership and/or returns to fitness following injuries.
The camp will give Jones an opportunity to reconnect with Ashton and explain to him what it is he needs to do at Sale this season to warrant selection in the autumn and in the Six Nations, as it will for Rhodes, who is experiencing this environment for the first time in his professional career.
That opportunity to get a look at players and be able to communicate in person the areas they need to improve is one of the real values of these preseason training camps and for no group of players is that more valuable than the fresh faces in the squad.
Nathan Earle and Joe Cokanasiga have been in these camps before, but following moves to Harlequins and Bath respectively, both players will be keen to kick on at club level and push for international selection, especially with a Rugby World Cup now just over a year away. At Quins, Earle will come under the tutelage of ones of Jones’ former lieutenants in Paul Gustard and should be in line for more playing time than he saw at Saracens, whilst Cokanasiga will be hopeful that a Bath side battling in the top half of the Premiership will be more conducive to his England hopes than a relegation battle with London Irish was.
Joe Marchant and Jack Singleton also fall into this group, with the former looking to make the most of Jonathan Joseph’s omission due to injury and the latter keen to push his way up the hooker hierarchy, with Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie having failed to usurp England captain Dylan Hartley over the past three seasons.
The newer faces to the group also include three members of England’s side at the World Rugby U20 Championship in France back in June, in the forms of Gabriel Ibitoye, Jordan Olowofela and Joel Kpoku.
Ibitoye, who has been nominated for the World Rugby Junior Player of the Year award for the last two years, gives England some versatility in his ability to play on both wings and at outside centre. He was called up as an apprentice back in February and Jones thinks highly of the youngster, enough so to have him competing with club teammates Earle and Marchant, both of whom would be preseason favourites to start ahead of Ibitoye for Harlequins in the season opener.
If Ibitoye’s selection has been because of consistent excellence for the U20s over the last two seasons, then Olowofela’s is because of a single standout U20 championship back in June, having not featured for the side in 2017, his first year of eligibility. He flashed his footwork, speed and counter-attacking ability at the tournament, on his way to scoring a number of dazzling tries, something which also warranted Junior Player of the Year award nomination.
Finally, Kpoku follows in the footsteps of Nick Isiekwe, not only as lock of prodigious talent coming out of the Saracens academy, but also as a player still eligible for the U20s featuring in senior England training camps. Ibitoye and Olowofela may have stood out with their tries, breaks and offloads at the U20 Championship, but you wouldn’t go far wrong with Kpoku if you were looking for England’s most consistent player at the competition. He’s mobile, though perhaps lacking the top gear that Isiekwe and Maro Itoje before him both had, but makes up for that with a strong carrying game and the natural size to add ballast in the scrum.
For these three, this preseason training camp is not only a valuable learning tool and opportunity to hone their game under the man they need to impress to win a senior cap, it is also a big confidence boost for a trio of players wanting to nail down regular starting spots in the Premiership.
There are veterans who have performed in the Premiership for 10 years who these three have been selected ahead of and to know Jones has that kind of faith in them will only help them moving forward.
Going into the final season before a Rugby World Cup should be about Jones fine-tuning his group, having identified the key contributors over the last few years, but there is always room for a bolter or two, making this preseason camp arguably more valuable than last two editions in 2016 and 2017.
Is Cokanasiga the man to add a different dimension to England’s attack? Could Ibitoye be the defensive solution at 13? Or can Singleton push on and slipstream behind George and Cowan-Dickie to the starting hooker spot?
Jones will get his first look in 2018/19 at these players this coming weekend and for many of them, it won’t be a case of simply going through the preseason motions.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments