England Six Nations Preview

With a squad named, its time to start getting excited. Particularly as it was named about a week ago. For those who can't remember it, this is the squad:

Catt, Genge, Marler, Mullan
Cole, Sinckler
Hartley, George, Taylor
Ewels, Itoje, Kruis, Launchbury, Lawes
Clifford, Harrison, Haskell, Hughes, Williams, Wood

Youngs, Care
Ford, Farrell, Lozowski
Daly, Joseph, Slade, Te'o
May, Nowell, Watson, Yarde
Brown
To a certain extent, there's not a lot to say here. Its very much a business as usual squad with everyone bar Catt, Williams and Lozowski previously involved. However, there's a few points of interest.

Uncle Eddie clearly wants Marler in the team asap and isn't sure when that will be, but the inclusion of both Genge and Catt points to an interesting call. Genge had one of the shooting stars of Jones' reign until missing the most recent training squad with Catt getting the nod. I've no idea who'll get the nod for the bench if Marler does miss some games but in any case, spare a thought for Paul Hill, another of the shooting stars who's now not making the squad at all. That might be a sign of Genge's fate as well - a team looking for more experienced scrummagers. We'll see. If Genge does join Hill in the cold, it wouldn't be the worst thing. Sparing young props heavy work loads is always a good thing and so too is Jones' philosophy of making the kids work for it.

Speaking of kids working for it, Ewels can congratulate himself on a job well done in making his first Six Nations squad. He's probably going to be holding tackle bags most of the time, fitness permitting, but its still a big step up for him. It also hints at the possibility of a big step back for Itoje - why else do you need five locks? In Robshaw's absence, Itoje is almost certainly the safest bet for England's blindside and heaven knows the flankers in the squad aren't making a man excited to play them. You'd imagine Itoje would end up besides Hughes in that case. That's a lot of raw talent but I wouldn't be surprised if come mid-point in the Six Nations, we were all pining for Robshaw and Vunipola.

The general assumption in the papers seems to be that May and Nowell are in pole position for starting shirts, with Watson's spell out costing him in the pecking order. If so, this opens up some interesting questions about who gets to sit on the bench. Te'o and Watson would seem to be the obvious pairing, covering everything and offering a few changes in plan. Jones doesn't always put too much stock in that sort of thing though and both Daly and Slade have displayed added versatility under him. In short, it could be anyone.

In any case, the real enemy this window is complacency. Which is not to dismiss the other teams - Ireland in Dublin should be a real challenge - or the impact of the injured. Those things matter a lot. However, Jones' reign to date has revealed an England team whose peak performance allows them to cope with those things (although they are yet to play an in form Ireland). The question is how long can they keep this up?

My prediction for this spring would be four wins and a coin toss as to who takes the Grand Slam in Dublin. Welsh folk may bristle at that one but with Gatland away, I reckon it would be an upset for them to win, Cardiff or no. And its now an upset when England lose to not-NZ in Twickenham until proven otherwise. Soon we'll see how true this holds.

p.s.

I'm a big fan of the U20 6N as a way to spend a Friday night. I haven't been paying too much attention to the squad this time round, so I'm just going to link you a pretty good review of England's squad I found elsewhere.