Eddie Jones watches Wasps vs Bath in the European Champions Cup in December
England rugby is in a strange place. 2015 came with hope and expectation, and despite a disastrous home Rugby World Cup, it feels as though continuity rather than sweeping changes will be the order of 2016.
Eddie Jones’ appointment as England head coach is the big alteration, and under him here are five players who should become starters for England in 2016.
Matt Kvesic, the Gloucester openside flanker is sure to be in England’s 2016 Six Nations squad after a strong first half of the domestic season. The competition is hardly severe, but he is the best eligible English No. 7 at the breakdown, and has added physicality to his game this season.
England desperately need a jackal at the ruck, and Kvesic is best-placed to deliver.
Kvesic will have to fight off the challenge of Harlequins’ Jack Clifford. A Junior World Cup-winning captain in 2013, Clifford can play across the back row and is the more athletic and exciting prospect of the two.
In playing style, he is a combination of two injury-plagued England flankers of recent years: Tom Rees and Tom Croft.
Chris Robshaw’s current partner on the flank is Tom Wood, but although Wood can dine out on performances such as when he toppled McCaw in 2012, those stellar appearances are once-a-season phenomena. A great lineout jumper he may be, but flankers need to scavenge.
Wood has had his chance, Clifford will be the better player in years to come, but right now Kvesic’s skill set is most in demand.
Nathan Hughes will not be eligible for England for the Six Nations, but expect the Wasps basher to finish 2016 as England’s No. 8.
He faces two good candidates in Ben Morgan and Billy Vunipola, but Hughes has consistency that the injury-prone duo lack. Morgan and Vunipola on their day are extremely dangerous ball-carriers, but it’s Hughes who consistently delivers the power.
Hughes also has a better engine than either of the other two and looks primed for international action from June 27 onwards. England will wish he were eligible sooner.
Joe Simpson looks ungainly. The way he runs, the socks down by his ankles and his scrawny figure. But looks can be deceiving and Simpson has been the best scrum-half in England this season.
Ben Youngs, the current England No. 9, has returned from the World Cup with verve back in his game, but the clinching argument for Simpson to get the nod is who his half-back partner would be.
George Ford has been down on confidence and although Danny Cipriani has played well for Sale, Owen Farrell has been the prominent stand-off this term. If Ford’s form returns and he outplays Farrell for the fly-half berth, Youngs is his best partner at half-back.
But with Farrell, a more conservative player starting at No. 10, England would do well to consider the more attacking scrum-half, the livewire Joe Simpson, to give defences more to consider.
Elliot Daly, the Wasps centre, has had to have the year of his life in 2015 to be considered as an alternative to England’s player of the year, Jonathan Joseph, but this season he has consistently outperformed the Bath man.
Both No. 13s have deceptively good handling and a searing outside break, but Daly’s defence in the crucial outside-centre channel is vastly superior.
Daly already has a slight edge on Joseph, and his ability to land penalty goals from his own half cements his case.
Daly will also have to fight off Manu Tuilagi’s claims once he returns to the fold, but with Leicester coach Richard Cockerill adamant that Tuilagi won’t be rushed into international duty, Daly is in line for a deserved run in the England team.
Henry Slade, once he is fit again, is an absolute no-brainer in the England midfield, solving the question of a second playmaker that has bugged the Red Rose since the retirement of Will Greenwood.
It won’t be until the June tour to Australia at the earliest, but, once he returns, Slade is England’s inside centre for the foreseeable future.
