3 Players Who Will Not Feature for England in 2017 6 Nations

England, Grand Slam winners of the 2016 RBS Six Nations with a young team, will not be jettisoning many players from their current squad for the next year’s championship, but one formerly lauded lock looks increasingly surplus to requirements when his rivals are fit.

England head coach Eddie Jones was rightly ruthless when picking his Six Nations squad, and the evidence from the tournament is that two high-profile players he excluded will find it increasingly difficult to return to the England fold.

In both cases, their omission is down to the arrival of players in their position who have impressed, and because they do not fit the mould that Jones requires.

Here are Bleacher Report’s three players who will not feature for England in the 2017 Six Nations.

Courtney Lawes: fierce, rangy and a winner of 45 England caps since 2009 despite repeated injury problems. Once one of the players England would dare not be without for a big game, the Northampton Saints lock is now looking increasingly dispensable.

I wrote in January that the 27-year-old needed a big Six Nations to retain his place in England’s thinking, but this year he was outshone by Sacarens’ George Kruis and Maro Itoje, whose set piece and loose work was exceptional. Combined with Billy Vunipola, these two second rows were England’s players of the tournament.

Lawes is potentially as dynamic as Itoje, and as hard-working as Kruis, but Jones is demanding consistency of performance that historically Lawes has struggled to produce.

With Joe Launchbury as understudy, only injuries to rivals or a major upturn in form could lead to Lawes being considered in England’s matchday squad for the 2017 Six Nations.

Tom Youngs, the Leicester Tigers hooker and winner of 31 caps for England and the British and Irish Lions, may not get another chance to represent the Red Rose.

In axing the 29-year-old from the Six Nations squad this year, Jones was making a call based on age and the rugby philosophy he requires from England.

As Jones stated in January, per the Scotsman: “We want to have that real strong set-piece; dominant scrum, good lineout.”

Quite simply, Youngs does not suit that set-piece formula. His throwing can be erratic, and for all his good work in the loose, it is no coincidence that the England scrum faltered in the Rugby World Cup when he was at hooker.

In appointing Dylan Hartley as captain, Jones added another nail in Youngs’ coffin. What’s more, the international class already shown by Jamie George with Saracens and the promotion of Exeter Chiefs’ Luke Cowan-Dickie to the full England squad strongly suggests the Leicester man is now England’s fourth choice-hooker at best.

Youngs, then, is highly unlikely to be in the squad for the 2017 Six Nations.

Tom Wood, like Youngs, does not match Jones’ criteria for his position. But in truth, 42-cap Wood was shown too much loyalty by the Stuart Lancaster regime, to the extent that he was made England vice-captain.

The 29-year-old may be one of the best lineout operators in the world from the back row, but his mediocrity at the breakdown and limited ball-carrying threat mean that Jones is unlikely to turn to the Northampton Saints man this year, let alone in the 2017 Six Nations.

In Wood’s place, two other experienced flankers have won praise. Writing in the Guardian after England’s victory at the Stade de France, Andy Bull noted that “(James) Haskell made more tackles than anybody on either side, and Chris Robshaw was remorselessly excellent.”

With two wise heads, and Harlequins’ back-rower Jack Clifford earning his first England caps this Six Nations, Wood should not expect a recall anytime soon.