Today marks six days until the start of the 2018 Six Nations! Here's the first of my Six Nations Preview Series running up to the start of the tournament.
This Edition - ENGLAND
Hope you enjoy the read!
England has won the last two Six Nations over the past 2 years and will seek something that has never been achieved before - a third title from three at this year's tournament; a tournament that has been running for 135-years. Not too much pressure on the England lads this year then!
There is a big debate over England form, especially with English clubs' dire form in European Competitions against the big French sides and the Irish provincial teams. On a national level, England have been showing up, putting in big wins against the Pumas, Australia and Samoa in the Autumn Internationals at the end of last year. I don't think it's possible to quantify 'form' coming into the Six Nations, so we'll just have to see whether the players perform (or not) on the international stage.
Key England players, Elliot Daly, Nathan Hughes & Billy Vunipola, won't be featuring in this year's tournament through injury; and even Mike Brown and Chris Robshaw are injury concerns for the first few matches. Luckily England has the depth of Exeter Chiefs standout Sam Simmonds, Bath prodigy Zach Mercer and Harlequins-bound utility back Nathan Earle, to come in - so England most likely won't be affected too much.
The biggest strength I see in the England team that you won't see in any other side in the Six Nations is their number of playmakers. George Ford & Owen Farrell at 10 and 12 is a fearful combination and will undoubtedly be causing the opposition some big trouble throughout the tournament. My preferred centre combination would be Henry Slade then slotting in at 13, who also has the ability to completely control a game over 80 minutes. With Mike Brown being doubtful, Harry Mallinder could (if Anthony Watson isn't chosen, or is put on the wing to cover Daly's absence) be Full-Back and his in-play kicking skills would just add to this potentially lethal concoxtion. Alex Lozowski and Marcus Smith as cover or to come off the bench shows that England will not struggle when it comes to controlling games this year.
Many believe England's biggest weakness to be their scrum, and it's no way close to Eddie Jones vision of England's scrum being the "world's best." England have been linking up with Wales to train their scrum, and a scrum might become the turning point in matches against Ireland and Scotland. I'm assuming that the first choice tight-five partnership will be Mako Vunipola, Dylan Hartley (even, in my opinion, Jamie George far outranks Hartley), Dan Coles, Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes. That's where it begins to go downhill as there's little depth in the scrum. Eddie Jones is picking the 6th or 7th string loosehead prop in Lewis Boyce, and I'm not sure Nick Esiekwe and George Kruis will be good back-ups to Itoje and Lawes (or Launchbury).
England has two home games this year (against Ireland and Wales), and then three away games (against Scotland, France and Italy). I think England will beat both France and Italy, but only marginally beat France by around a score. England will also beat Wales but won't have the strength to beat either Ireland or Scotland and will probably slot in 3rd.
I'm a bit pessimistic of England's chances, and although many pundits are saying the tournament is between England and Ireland. Scotland definitely have a say in the outcome of this year's Six Nations.
Feel free to give me your thoughts below!