Forwards the Yoot

Eddie Jones is set to end the long wait for real news on his intentions today with the announcement of his first EPS. The papers have had a few rumours, but no one seems sure on quite how accurate they are. So rather than comment on possible news when I can wait just a little longer for the real McCoy, I've decided to help waste your morning with talk on a different rumour, that being the mooted U23 tour of South Africa.

I have to say while at first I was really enthusiastic about the idea, I have had some second thoughts since first hearing about it. Many of England's eligible players would already be involved with the senior squad anyway; out of England's World Cup squad, 10 each of both the backs and of the forwards had made their full debut by the age of 23. And pretty much all of the backs that hadn't are players I'd never like to see play for England again. I'm all for it simply because it's more rugby, but the RFU should have better reasons than that and if the cream of the crop just flat out doesn't need it, who's it meant to help? 

The obvious answer is late developers. There are three main types of player I can see this being really good for. The first set are the players for whom everyone had really high hopes for based on age grade but can't seem to get past the squad rotation level at club despite obvious talent. Getting them more gametime could be a tipping point just in itself. The second set are the backs who have oodles of talent but not a sniff of senior duties due to defensive frailties. Getting them involved in an England set-up so they can still be groomed for senior duties while they work on this has a lot to be said for it. The third set are the forwards who are still a little callow on their set-piece work. Is this going to make a big enough difference to be worth the resources?

Looking at that World Cup squad again, you do have to question how sensible our current development policy is. At the moment, coaches have been picking the best of the litter very young (good) and then sticking with them regardless of how well they develop (not so good). The U23s wouldn't just be about developing the next best, it would also be about giving the coaching set-up a better idea of what they could have had instead, hopefully ensuring a better level of competition for the England squad going forwards. That in turn should force the players who get in early to either keep developing or lose their place; based on the number of players who never ironed out their fatal weakness, this seems hugely necessary. The U23s could never produce a player for England but still be worth it if it puts more pressure on the EPS to raise their game.

It would produce players for England though. Of course it would. And I don't just mean "tight five forward destined for greatness plays a year of U23 at 21 and then goes into the seniors at 22 instead of going straight into the seniors at 22". I'm talking about marginal or incomplete talents who could seriously benefit from a couple of years in a halfway house environment when it comes to turning them into proper internationals. There may only be a couple of such players in each World Cup squad, but that is the sort of marginal gain that's possibly the difference between perennial underperformance and getting our shit together.

There is one further caveat though; the need for proper pre-seasons. If we want our young players to avoid burnout and reach the peak physical performance needed to get the best out of them, we can't be flogging them all season and then every summer too. Some players only ever do proper pre-seasons in the small gap between being an U20 international and being a full international; this could possibly remove even that. It wasn't that long ago George Ford was left at home to ensure he could have a proper pre-season once in his career; that sort of thinking will be needed from time to time if we go through with this plan.

If we do, then who should be involved? It's a bit hard to predict given we don't know who's in the EPS yet and that as it would be a summer tour, injuries should give a few unexpected players a run out with the seniors, but assuming no injuries, no U20 players used, and the standard format of turns 23 that year (i.e. born 2013 or younger), a hypothetical squad might look like this:

LHP: Alec Hepburn, Ellis Genge
HK: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Nathan Morris
THP: Scott Wilson, Kyle Sinckler
LK: Charlie Ewels, Elliott Stooke, Dom Barrow, Jonny Hill
BR: James Chisholm, Lewis Ludlam, Dave Sisi, Lewis Ludlow, Joel Conlon
SH: Callum Braley, Stuart Townsend
FH: Alex Lozowski, Billy Burns
CE: Harry Sloan, Tom Stephenson, Nick Tompkins, Sam James
W/FB: Henry Purdy, Nathan Earle, Tom Fowlie, Mike Haley, Simon Hammersley

This could be a lot stronger, it's true, and a few guys there are there to make up the numbers more than anything. This squad assumes that Paul Hill, Maro Itoje, James Clifford, George Ford, Henry Slade, Sam Hill, Ollie Devoto, Jack Nowell and Anthony Watson will all be involved in the senior squad. Cherrypicking the best of the U20s would surely see Jack Walker miss out on his 3rd JWC and sent on this tour in place of Nathan Morris, while there's a strong case for London Irish's Johnny Williams to continue his fast-tracking, although that's a strong enough group of centres as is. There's also the latest cause celebre of English players abroad, the still U20 eligible openside Sam Underhill who's been making waves for Ospreys. He's definitely too good to let the Taffs poach him, that's for sure.

Honestly, I'm not sure there's too many future England players there. Most are behind an established queue of players and haven't really persuaded me that they've got it. But there's potential there and very few players I'd absolutely rule out. And you could definitely make a watchable team out of that.

So here's hoping it happens.

I now return you to your normal fear and loathing of the prospect of Chris Ashton getting back into the England.