You want to give Smith opportunities to bring out the best of him but Farrell offers solidity, experience and control
Looking from the outside, and I’m not in the inner circle of what they are working towards or doing in training, I think Eddie Jones has two choices with this England side ahead of facing Japan. Does he stick with the same and say we have lost by a point, we need to improve this week and give the players an opportunity to go again.That second, alternative option is that you potentially give Owen Farrell an opportunity back at No 10, move Manu to inside centre and bring Henry Slade into 13.
If the plan was to make a half dozen changes for Japan, then I would stick to the plan and do that by giving Farrell a start at 10, before then picking my best side for New Zealand and South Africa. If you go with the same selection as Argentina, then that team pretty much needs to play the whole autumn together to build for the two big games.Owen is obviously a world-class player. I feel that Marcus Smith is a long-term prospect, he is going to be a superstar in the game. I would like to see him be more a running threat with England, because with that footwork when he does play flatter to the line, he does hold the defence in place. You need him as a running fly-half early on in the game to keep the defence guessing, having them in two minds about what he is going to do.With Owen at No 10, you look at that as a possibility if you want to play a different game. The hard thing for England is you are trying to find a place for Marcus and he is a raw talent, unbelievably skilful. You want to keep giving him the opportunities to bring him on as a player and bring out the best of him. Certain games you go back to Owen at No 10 and you have that solidity, experience, and he has done it brilliantly for Saracens controlling the game for a number of years and had great success at fly-half.
On Sunday, England definitely went in with the approach to dominate upfront and there’s no doubt that was part of the game plan. For me the disappointing thing was out wide, they lacked any fluidity in the backline. I felt Smith was playing too deep. He plays so much flatter for Harlequins and is much more of a threat on the frontline. Whether he’s been asked to play a bit deeper for England I am not too sure, but he threatens more when he attacks the line.In Test rugby there is definitely less space and we have seen with someone like the New Zealand fly-half Richie Mo’unga, who in Super Rugby is making breaks and causing defences lots of issues, but in international rugby there’s less space. Marcus is going through that at the moment and definitely learning.I would also be looking for more pace on one of the wings, a finishing winger. I love Jack Nowell as a player, he gets lots of touches and goes looking for the ball, a great servant for England. I just felt they lacked a bit of speed. Moving Manu to 12, they can use his size to get front-foot ball. Slade is a little silkier with the hands.Upfront, I’m not sure that Maro had the impact at six in terms of ball-carrying so it’s whether you put him back into the second, even though I felt Alex Coles had a great debut. Yes, he made a couple of mistakes, but he had some good carries. The front row carried well too, and then you have options in the back row too whether you stick with Billy, or have a back row featuring Tom Curry, Jack Willis and Sam Simmonds. That could give you some real mobility, some carrying power and footwork.
Looking from the outside, they went with a six-two split, wanted to pick the biggest, most physical team they could potentially have, and I think the idea was with Nowell and Joe Cokanasiga on the wings and with Tuilagi back in midfield that they wanted to beat Argentina up physically. Unfortunately they weren’t able to impose themselves in that way. Eddie has lots of options, it just comes down to the mindset. I’ve been in that position before as a coach where you are disappointed and you give those players an opportunity to go out again and hope those combinations are a bit better the following week. Or do you take the opportunity to look at new combinations.He has also spoken about holding some tactics back for the Rugby World Cup, but if that is the case he is a much better coach than I am! You want to be working on things and combinations. Sunday was the sort of game where I would have been getting a message out on the field to not get caught up in the pushing and shoving that is going on, the Argentinians love that and it slows the game down. I would have been sending a message out to get back in position and lift the tempo, to not let Argentina settle.What I have always found really positive from a coaching perspective, especially in Wales, was trying to give everyone the narrative, particularly the press. I would say what we were trying to do, these are our plans over this campaign and over the next 18 months. When you go back and get asked by the press, you can respond by saying we told you we were going to do this or rest these players against these teams, to try certain things. So that from a coaching perspective, you control the narrative and the message you are putting out there. At the moment, I am not 100 per cent sure what the messages are that England are trying to convey.