MEET the new coach, same as the old coach? Not quite, because it is not difficult to tell the wisecracking Eddie Jones apart from the sombre Stuart Lancaster. But even so, Jones’s first team selection in charge of England bears a distinct resemblance to the kind of side favoured by his predecessor.
We should probably have expected as much, as Jones has hinted for weeks now about his desire to rebuild England along traditional lines. That reconstruction work would appear to favour physicality over finesse, above all in the back row.
While Scotland have two natural openside flankers in John Hardie and John Barclay, not to mention a third on the bench in the shape of Blair Cowan, Jones has gone with Chris Robshaw and James Haskell on the flanks. Former captain Robshaw is at 6, Haskell at 7, but both are arguably better equipped to play defensive roles rather than going foraging for ball.
There are no new caps in the starting 15, but three potential debutants on the bench in Paul Hill, Jack Clifford and Ollie Devoto, and Jones has also announced that Mike Brown, Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola will be vice-captains to Dylan Hartley.
According to Vunipola, who completes the back-row line-up, the coach thinks that England have been “too nice” in the past.
"For Eddie we have been too nice,” said Vunipola, whose brother Mako is a replacement prop. “In the past we have been a bit lax and now we have to find our motivation and reason to bring the devil.
“It's about not taking a backward step if we have lost a scrum or something like that, because those little incidents in a game that can pass you by. If we lose a scrum and the opponents push us back then he wants us to us to have the attitude that 'next time you come around I'm going to smash you'.”
Meanwhile, Saracens and England winger Chris Ashton has failed in his appeal against his ten-week ban for making contact with the eyes of Ulster’s Luke Marshall. Ashton, who said he was “incredibly disappointed” at the outcome of the hearing, will now miss the entire Six Nations Championship. He is free to play again on 28 March.
England (v Scotland at Murrayfield, tomorrow, 4.50pm): M Brown (Harlequins); A Watson, J Joseph (both Bath), O Farrell (Saracens), J Nowell (Exeter); G Ford (Bath), D Care (Harlequins); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), J Launchbury (Wasps), G Kruis (Saracens), C Robshaw (Harlequins), J Haskell (Wasps), B Vunipola (Saracens). Substitutes: J George, M Vunipola (both Saracens), P Hill, C Lawes (both Northampton), J Clifford (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester), A Goode (Saracens), O Devoto (Bath).
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