Jack Willis and Ollie Lawrence set to test Eddie Jones’s England squad depth

POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Will Macpherson13 November 2020

Eddie Jones flitted through various uncapped players in his training camps for this long autumn campaign before settling on nine for his official squad.

Of all the six scheduled games — the doomed Barbarians non-capper excepted — the Autumn Nations Cup opener against Georgia always looked the most ripe for a test of England’s depth and some new faces. It will, as Jones said, be “no tea party” and might be deeply uncomfortable at times, but it is a game England should win.Of those nine uncapped players, two stood out as being particularly necessary newbies: 23-year-old flanker Jack Willis and 21-year-old centre Ollie Lawrence.

Both get their first starts tomorrow, after Lawrence made his debut off the bench against Italy, a game that also saw Jonny Hill, Tom Dunn and Ollie Thorley take their bows.

Willis and Lawrence’s cases for selection are very different.

Willis had been in camp a couple of years ago before injury, then was irresistible for Wasps this season, scooping award after award. He plays in a position that is suddenly, arguably, England’s most competitive, openside flanker, but — even if Jones can ignore Ben Spencer and the Simmonds brothers — there was just no way he could be overlooked.

Sam Underhill, who Jones rates as “probably the best destructive No7 in the world”, gets a rest, while Tom Curry and Ben Earl will burst off the bench.

That really is enviable depth and Jones’s judgment will be required on a game-by-game basis, because they cannot all make the 23.

Lawrence has also been terrific at club level for Worcester, but is picked in a position that, by Jones’s own admission, is light when Manu Tuilagi is absent, as he will be for a while now. Jones has spent years searching for another tackle-busting midfielder.

By 5pm tomorrow, we will know plenty more about England’s depth.

The Autumn Nations Cup will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from November 13. Get in on the action by subscribing to Amazon Prime. It costs £7.99 a month, £79 a year or try a 30-day free trial. 

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