I agree with that. Brian Moore may be right - England may not have the players. The problem is that we don’t know as selection has been so stale. For at least 18 months we should have been building around a Smith/Mitchell or Spencer or Robson 9-10 axis with Ford as the back up 10. Malins should be the nailed on 15. We should have seen our best wingers such as Radwan, Thorley or Hassell-Collins given a run. We don’t have a class 12 but we did have the likes of Atkinson/James/Devoto who were natural fits. At 13 we discarded Lawrence who is a naturally gifted prospect and should have rotated with Slade. In the forwards we have had endless back row options but insisted on playing a lock there and the stand out 8 in the prem / Dombrandt has just broken through even though he’s been the best 8 for 2 years. Jones compounded that by playing our best 7 at 8. There are some players I’m sure we’d all select but as a playing pool, say two in all positions I’d like to have seen:
TH: Sinckler, Stuart
LH: Marler, Genge
Hooker : Cowan-Dickie, Singleton
Locks: Itoje, Lawes, Ribbans,
Six: Shields, Ewers
Seven : Curry, Willis
Eight: Dombrandt, T Willis
Nine: Mitchell, Robson, Spencer
Ten: Smith, Ford
Eleven & Fourteen: Radwan, Nowell, Hassell-Collins, Thorley, Odogwu??
Twelve: Atkinson, Devoto, James
Thirteen: Slade, Lawrence
Fifteen: Malins, Steward.