It was a footnote to Manu Tuilagi’s latest injury but Nick Schonert’s withdrawal from England’s training squad last month was a bitter blow for both the Worcester prop and Eddie Jones.
The 27-year-old South African tighthead has been on the periphery of the England setup for a while, doing enough to “get in the room” as he describes it but yet to win a first cap. He played against the Barbarians in May but did not make the squad to tour South Africa, while he would have gone to Argentina 12 months earlier only for a hand injury suffered towards the end of the season to rule him out.
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It is a testament to his perseverance, then, that Schonert – who qualifies through his English grandmother – has stayed in Jones’s thoughts and there are no prizes for guessing who the head coach will be looking at most closely from the stands when Worcester host Bristol on Sunday. England’s scrum coach, Neal Hatley, is a keen admirer of his fellow South African’s traditional technique and Schonert is improving around the park to the extent that his Worcester director of rugby, Alan Solomons, believes it is a matter of when, not if, he makes a first competitive international appearance.
His chances of doing so this autumn took a hit when a dead leg in Worcester’s thrilling win over Leicester ruled him out of the Bristol camp but Schonert, who arrived in England from the Cheetahs in 2014, is philosophical. “I would like to think that by missing one camp you are not pushed aside for ever,” he says. “You’ve got to have something to get you in the room but you have to have something more to get their attention. You can’t just be a one‑trick pony; they are looking for the complete package.”
Jones was recently asked how he rated his options at inside-centre and his reply was typically pithy. “Skinny” was the verdict and the tighthead position – certainly in terms of experience with Dan Cole yet to come back into the fold after the summer off – is little fatter. Kyle Sinckler played all three South Africa Tests, excelling in the last after struggling somewhat in the first two, while Harry Williams has enough of a battle even getting into the Exeter side this season. Between them the pair have only six Test starts and, despite Cole’s weighty total of 78, it looks as if Jones himself is still uncertain of his starting No 3 for the World Cup.
Schonert certainly appreciates the qualities of his domestic rivals but believes Ireland’s Tadhg Furlong is the prototype for the modern-day tighthead. “They are looking for someone who is more completed,” he adds. “They are looking for someone like Tadhg Furlong, who can scrummage as well as play brilliantly with the ball. He’s got incredible hands and he can attack really well. That’s what they want for the modern game. Guys like Kyle Sinckler and Harry Williams, guys who can do a bit of everything and do it well. At the same time I still see Dan Cole as one of the world’s best. He’s really good at what he does.”
It is often remarked how many of England’s Under-20 side at the 2011 Junior World Cup have graduated to senior level. Mako Vunipola, Joe Launchbury, George Ford, Owen Farrell and Elliot Daly are among them and they have recently been joined by Brad Shields, part of the New Zealand side who beat England in the final. In the previous round England overcame South Africa in a hard-fought semi in which Schonert came off the bench for the Baby Boks.
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“If I could predict the future, I’d buy a lottery ticket right now,” he adds. “It’s a really hard one to have predicted [the way things were going to turn out]. I often chat to some of the boys I played against then – George Ford was playing for Leicester the other week. Sometimes you don’t realise how far we’ve all come and the journey we’ve taken. It’s been one hell of a journey so far.”
It continues on Sunday with Worcester, buoyed by the announcement during the week that the Warriors are under new ownership, seeking a first home win of the campaign and further evidence that they are not going to roll over as the pre‑season favourites for relegation. “The Premiership is so hard because you don’t get a rest, you’re constantly competing against good teams,” says Schonert. “I believe it is such a false economy when you get people predicting who will go down. I didn’t predict I was going to be in England 10 years ago, so why should my prediction be negative?”