England’s final teamsheet of the year marks a new beginning. For the first time in a major Twickenham Test against a leading nation, Jamie George has been picked at hooker in preference to a fit Dylan Hartley, while Manu Tuilagi is finally ready to rejoin the international fray off the bench for the first time since 2016. For both players the wait must have felt interminable.
In George’s case, superhuman levels of patience have been required. The Saracens hooker made his England debut over three years ago and started all three Tests for the British & Irish Lions in New Zealand last year, but Hartley, when available, has been Eddie Jones’s first choice until now.
“I was buzzing when I heard,” said George, cheerfully undermining the managerial party line about there being no difference in the modern game between starters and finishers.
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One glance at the 28-year-old’s beaming smile told the real story. Jones is not yet writing off Hartley, about to overtake Jason Leonard’s record by making his 56th Test appearance at Twickenham, but the days of the co-captain starting as of right are over.
From George’s perspective this is music to his cauliflower ears. “It’s a great opportunity so hopefully I’ll take it,” he said, sounding more like a debutant than a hooker with 31 England caps already in his locker.
In many ways it is a case of history repeating itself; he also spent a number of Cinderella years at Saracens waiting behind John Smit and Schalk Brits. Now he knows the chance exists to take a firm grip on the No 2 shirt, much as Ben Foakes has done with England’s wicket-keeping gloves on tour in Sri Lanka.
With under a year to go until the World Cup, regardless of how England’s management attempt to spin it, the dynamics of this England side are starting to shift. “I always want to start the game – naturally you always do,” George said. “But I don’t pick the team. If I did I’d have 100 caps.”
George did start against France at Twickenham in March but only because Hartley was ruled out with a calf injury. He was also in the run-on XV in all three summer Tests in South Africa and again against Japan a week ago; all the while, though, Hartley was still top dog. Now, inevitably, the debate about England’s leading man at next year’s World Cup will reopen. With each passing day, the prospect of Owen Farrell captaining England in their biggest games at the World Cup grows ever more likely.
Hartley, as it happens, has looked fitter and more sprightly this season than he did last year; off the field, with his vast experience and ability to set the right tone in the dressing room, he also remains a useful presence. If George plans to usurp him permanently, the home lineout will certainly have to function more smoothly than it did in the second half against New Zealand.
It was by no means the hooker’s fault alone, with the All Blacks benefitting from two or three crucial refereeing calls, but George could do without it all unravelling again against Australia on Saturday.
There is also the small matter of his scrum contribution: for years England held sway over Australia in this area and Jones will be looking to George and his front-row colleagues Ben Moon and Kyle Sinckler to do likewise.
According to Jones absolute scrum domination is becoming increasingly hard to achieve at Test level. With referees keen to speed up the game, a quick heel of the ball to the back followed by a swift front-row collapse is increasingly the preferred method of weaker scrummaging sides. They, often correctly, gamble that officials will choose to keep the game moving rather than award a momentum-killing penalty.
“If scrums keep on going like this we’re not going to have scrums, we are just going to have seven lineout forwards,” Jones said. “Now you can have a weak scrum, hook it to the back, collapse and it’s play on. I have said to [England’s scrum coach] Neal Hatley he might be out of a job.”
Jones, either way, expects the Test to be free-flowing initially before tightening up. “We think the first half of the game there will be a lot of ball in play, a lot of movement. That suits Jamie. The end of the game we think will be more set piece, more of an arm-wrestle and that suits Dylan.”
Maybe, but this England selection, with Joe Cokanasiga in for the injured Jack Nowell on the wing, Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes at lock and Tuilagi bursting for second-half action, also has something of the lead piping about it. Get ahead of the Wallabies early on and England will fancy a strong finish to their autumn.