Why being dropped against Italy is the kick Jonathan Joseph needs to prove he's England's best centre

The Bath centre has not been at his best so far in the Six Nations and could find Elliot Daly taking his shirt for good if he's not careful

Jonathan Joseph will not feature against Italy at the weekend after being left out of the England squad (Getty)

Does the term “dropped” apply when an England player is left out against Italy? It’s hard to answer that question when Eddie Jones, the head coach, says he will not take the Italians lightly while preparing to make a number of changes that he wouldn’t have done had this weekend’s match been in Cardiff or Dublin.

So it’s difficult to gauge what is in store for Jonathan Joseph, England’s explosive outside centre who has proven his ability to change games with a flick of the boot and the pace of a world class wing to compliment his agility. The Bath centre was a notable name left out of the 24-man squad that Jones retained this week for Sunday’s Six Nations clash against Italy, with headlines quickly insisting that the 25-year-old had indeed been dropped.

When the opposition has already shipped 96 points in two matches and has never beaten England, can you consider yourself to have been dropped when not selected? When Jones is the head coach, then the only answer is yes.

The hard-nosed Australian doesn’t do things by half measures, and if he claims to be taking Italy seriously while experimenting with his line-up, that means Jones has spotted something that is potentially better than the existing product. That spells bad news for Joseph, because that something is a backline that contains Owen Farrell as fly-half, Ben Te’o at inside centre and Elliot Daly in Joseph’s No 13 shirt, with Anthony Watson coming in on the wing.

This should be a shock for Joseph, given that while he is no longer a spring chicken in the England squad, he should be nowhere near his peak yet. For Jones to think that there may be an alternative option that doesn’t feature Joseph should raise the alarm.

So why wouldn’t Jones include a player who has played in every one of his 16 unbeaten matches? The issue may lie in his recent impact on big occasions, and a glance at his try-scoring record offers the evidence why. Joseph has 13 tries in 31 appearances, not a bad record for an outside centre at all. However, five of those have come against Italy, and a further two in last year’s rout of Fiji. It’s true that a player can only score tries against the opposition that he is given, but Jones will want to see him scoring against much tougher opposition if he is to develop into a leading centre in world rugby.

To his credit, he has scored three tries against Australia, two of which have come early in the match and helped the side seize the advantage before the Wallabies were able to. But in his two appearances so far in this year’s Six Nations, he has little to show for it. England’s backline failed to get firing in the opening 19-16 win over France, while the crucial try for Elliot Daly to beat Wales nearly two weeks ago was notable in that Joseph was missing from the scoring play.

Given that Joseph’s passing is not the best out there, a player with the talent of Daly – with his hands as well as his feet – could prove a more lucrative option in the crossing the whitewash department. To put Joseph’s record into some sort of comparison, World Cup winner Will Greenwood scored 19 tries in his first 31 matches, plus a further 12 in the following 16 games. Yes, Greenwood also benefitted from the opposition, given he touched down three times against Italy, twice against both Tonga and Canada and one against the Netherlands, but he also scored against South Africa, France and multiple times against Wales and Ireland – the biggest games as Sir Clive Woodward shaped his World Cup winning side.

Daly (right) looks certain to take Joseph's place against Italy (Getty)

We know that Jones is looking to do the same, to use the Six Nations, the summer tours and the autumn international to build a side capable of winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and the onus is now on Joseph to prove that England are better off with him in the side.

Given that Jones is likely to persist with the George Ford-Owen Farrell combination, that leaves space for one out-and-out centre and, with Daly’s future clearly not on the wing given his talents on the ball, Jones has plenty of options to choose from. Joseph should see this then as a wake-up call, and realise that unless he rebounds and makes the shirt his own, he is in danger of dropping down the pecking order.