✨ Check out this insightful post from BBC Sport 📖
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📌 Here’s what you’ll learn:
Hybrid players are a bit like concept cars – attractive and interesting ideas, but when push comes to shove, coaches always opt for something more reliable and traditional to actually get from A to B.
Eddie Jones spoke about this possibility during his time as England coach. It was thought that winger Jack Nowell could operate as a winger. Suppose Tom Curry and Sam Underhill could go in the opposite direction and play in the back line.
But Jones never pursued that idea. The division between full-backs and strikers remained. Orthodoxy survived.
But it may be Jones’ successor, Steve Borthwick, who finally makes his decision.
Earlier this week, he flagged Ben Earl and Jay Pepper as options in midfield and floated the possibility of deploying his back-row colleague Henry Pollock as a winger.
“Maybe, maybe it won’t happen this fall,” he said of the switch to Earl’s starting center.
“He’s definitely a factor I think about. He’s spent a lot of time training with the defense and you can see his skill set and speed.”
If that happens during this round of Tests, the obvious chance would be against Fiji next week – not New Zealand or Argentina.
A win over Australia would further tempt Borthwick to risk his arm.
In just over 50 minutes on the pitch, Earl was England’s second highest meter maker, reaching 77 meters and hitting from distance for the opening try of the match.
Pollock, who replaced Earle on the bench, ran 52 meters and similarly enjoyed a broken pitch, deflecting outside full-back Andrew Kellaway for England’s second score.
Northampton chip Tiro, chased down and scored against Sale last season, external Show great skill set.
He and Earl have a back catalog of campaigns – brimming with pace and power – to be tested full-time behind the party.
It is only in wide open spaces that the jackal threat will be highlighted.
However, given the defensive differences and positional complexities, this would still be a big tactical gamble. It also showed Borthwick’s smooth release.
The England coach is trialling Tommy Freeman, usually a winger, as a starting outside center. The idea first appeared in the Six Nations thrashing of Wales.
It didn’t always look convincing against the Wallabies.
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