England coach Eddie Jones has big decisions and his new captain will be key

ENGLAND’S CAPTAINCY CONUNDRUM

Eddie Jones will start his term in charge of England at Murrayfield, as Stuart Lancaster did in 2012 when a Charlie Hodgson charge-down try was enough to get him off to a winning start. If international rugby union is considered to operate in four-year cycles, it is worth noting that 10 of England’s starting lineup that day were not involved in this year’s tournament.

Lancaster had to plan for the short-term because he was initially appointed on an interim basis. Those were the days when England finishing second in the Six Nations was regarded as an achievement, and what Lancaster quickly forged was team spirit in the drive for results rather than performances.

It will be different for Jones, who has been appointed on a four-year contract with the instruction to get England to the 2019 World Cup final. A fourth defeat to Scotland in 25 years and the first since 2008 would not be the ideal way for the new England head coach to start his reign, but given the short time he will have with the squad before the start of the Six Nations, his assembly will be bit by bit.

After Japan’s, and England’s, elimination from the World Cup, Jones said that the head coach of a tier one nation should be experienced. “An international team needs a coach who has the courage to be different. If Japan had lost our final pool game to the United States, people would have asked why we did not kick the ball rather than run with it. Because I am an older coach now, that sort of criticism does not worry me, but when you are a younger coach you feel the pressure and tell your team to kick the ball more. I think that’s what happened to Stuart Lancaster.

“I remember a comment of José Mourinho when someone asked if he would manage England and he replied: ‘I’m too young, maybe when I am 50 or 60 I will do it.’ When you get to international level, it’s all about managing a squad and having the independence to be able to do what you want to do. You always get a lot of media pressure and that is the difference between coaching at international level and the ones below.”

Jones will need that ability to absorb pressure as England’s first foreign head coach, but what he will also need is something England have not had since the Clive Woodward era; clarity in selection.

Woodward trusted his instincts and so will Jones, who in the first few weeks of the job will have to decide his coaching team, elite squad and then captain. Being the networker he is, the Australian will be up to speed by 1 December – when he officially begins work – but the decisions he makes in the first month or so will be among the most significant in his time in charge.

Lancaster went with Chris Robshaw as his captain in 2012, in a break from the World Cup of the previous year, when the Harlequin had not been part of England’s squad, but spent most of his reign having to justify the decision. Robshaw was never seen as being nailed on in the side because he was not an openside flanker in the foraging mould and also suffered the indignity of being overlooked for the Lions tour to Australia in 2013, losing out to Wales’s replacement seven.

Robshaw was what England needed four years ago – industrious and uncomplaining – but he never gained the ear of referees on the field, too often swatted away, unlike Sam Warburton, Paul O’Connell or Thierry Dusautoir, who were all listened to. Do England yet have that sort of figure? Dylan Hartley’s name has been canvassed, but when he tried to talk to Wayne Barnes during the 2013 Premiership final against Leicester about the scrum penalties being awarded against Northampton, he got himself sent off in frustration.

It may be that Jones has to cultivate a leader. Four of the Premiership captains are potential elite squad members, but none fits Jones’s stipulation that the captain must be the first choice in his position. Ben Youngs led Leicester last season, but the scrum-half position came to epitomise the uncertainty of the Lancaster regime with four players shuffled throughout. And there is now Joe Simpson to contend with.

Northampton’s Tom Wood may have been Lancaster’s choice but for injury, but will he be considered by Jones a six or a seven? Few places are set in cement. Does he take a punt on Maro Itoje, a second row who can play on the blindside? Or does he get hold of one of the few forwards assured of his place in the side, Joe Launchbury, and try to draw out the quiet second row? Will he pluck someone from relative obscurity?

The captaincy will have been on Jones’s mind since he agreed to take over from Lancaster. He does not have to make the appointment thinking about 2019, but during the formative part of his tenure the captain will be an important link to the players. England will change under him, but not at once. It is not 2012 all over again with sackcloth and ashes for kit.

England were 10 minutes away from beating Wales and qualifying for the World Cup quarter-finals, but as in the previous years, as pressure built, so decision-making collapsed. Jones will be able to handle the external pressure on him, but how he keeps it off his players will define his time in charge.

And it will come because, while his appointment was generally well received, the Rugby Football Union remains in the line of fire from those who believe there should be a place for Woodward at Twickenham. Eddie will ensure that the waters at HQ eddy: he is not one taken to calm ponds. He will be decisive and he arrives at a time when the Premiership clubs are enjoying their best European campaign since 2008.