Fresh faces fit for a new England under new coach Eddie Jones

After the hosts’ disastrous World Cup, Eddie Jones must be tempted to start from scratch when building his own side. Chris Hewett picks 10 neglected talents who can be red-rose mainstays come 2019

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Graham Henry’s stinging assessment of England’s ill-starred attempt to reclaim the World Cup on home soil – “Basically, your players weren’t good enough,” the former All Black coach pronounced – should concentrate at least a few of those minds recently distracted by the frantic hunt for a new head coach. Eddie Jones may be as good a choice for the top job as any, and better than most, but as one of his predecessors in the hot seat, Brian Ashton, used to tell the men he sent on to the field: “I can’t play the game for you from the back row of the stand.”

Ultimately, the chances of England making a better fist of the next global tournament in Japan than they did of the last one in their own backyard will depend solely on the people Jones selects, always assuming the plain-speaking Australian makes it through to the end of his contract. What to do? Should he stick with the lion’s share of the men who made such a hash of things in September and October, or turn to a less experienced but more vibrant group making names for themselves at Premiership and European Champions Cup level?

The bold move would be to make it new: if Jones acts immediately, he will have 50-odd international matches between now and 2019 to construct a match-day squad of his own design boasting the 600-plus caps he believes a team need if they are to make a serious challenge for the most glittering of the union game’s prizes. Some big names will have to be sacrificed: 10 fresh faces in a Six Nations squad of 32 or 33 players is quite a leap of faith. But if not now, when?

Semesa Rokoduguni

Age: 28

Position: Wing

Club: Bath

Caps: 1

The rationale, such as it was, underpinning Stuart Lancaster’s misplaced faith in Sam Burgess was size, size and more size. “Bath get away with fielding a small midfield because they have two big wings who hold the opposition defence,” said the recently departed England coach, adding that as the red-rose wings were tiddlers by comparison, he needed some serious poundage at centre. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Rokoduguni, one of Bath’s “big wings”, is just as capable of playing a Lomu-like role now as he was a year ago, when he was unceremoniously dumped after one Test appearance.

Semesa Rokoduguni runs with the ball during England training back in July (Getty)

Elliot Daly

Age: 23

Position: Outside centre

Club: Wasps

Caps: 0

Talking of small midfielders, the man from Croydon weighs in at around 15st – well shy of Manu Tuilagi’s poundage, for example. But he is blessed with fast feet, an appreciation of space, a dependable pass off either hand, a much-improved defensive game and a goal-kicking range that crosses county boundaries. All this must count for something, surely, even in the age of the behemoth. If England are looking to speed things up in the forthcoming Six Nations by making the ball do some work, they owe it to themselves to take a proper look in this direction.

Henry Slade

Age: 22

Position: Inside centre

Club: Exeter

Caps: 2

The trouble with the blindingly obvious is that it makes people blind. The West Countryman was clearly worth a Test debut against Samoa a year or so ago, plainly due a run in the 2015 Six Nations and virtually demanded to be picked in the World Cup games against Wales and Australia just recently. None of those things happened, and the consequences were dire. Life would be just a little easier if Exeter played him in the No 12 position every now and again, but you don’t have to visit Iceland to know it’s cold there. Get him involved. Now.

Joe Simpson

Age: 27

Position: Scrum-half

Club: Wasps

Caps: 1

On the face of it, a half-back who passes like Ben Youngs on a good day, has a kicking game to match Richard Wigglesworth’s and can beat Danny Care in a foot race should have 50 caps by now. Simpson does not do all of these things all of the time, but he is playing with maturity and growing consistency in an exciting Wasps team and looks very much like a man at the peak of his powers. If England have any sense – quite an assumption, admittedly – they will strike while the iron is hot and hand him a promotion.

Jamie George

Age: 25

Position: Hooker

Club: Saracens

Caps: 3

The form hooker in the country by the length and breadth of his native Hertfordshire and therefore the obvious man to square up to the resurgent Scots at Murrayfield in early February. There again, George was the form hooker last season – and a fat lot of good it did him when England made their initial World Cup selection. The coaches ignored the weight of his scrummaging, the accuracy of his line-out throwing, the security of his footballing skills in exposed areas of the field and his Sean Fitzpatrick-like opportunistic streak on the grounds that he “wasn’t tough enough”. Oh puhleeese.

Saracens hooker Jamie George was overlooked for England's World Cup training squad (Getty Images)

Jake Cooper-Woolley

Age: 25

Position: Tight-head prop

Club: Wasps

Caps: 0

There are some young tight-heads queuing up behind Dan Cole and David Wilson: Kieran Brookes, newly arrived at Northampton, has already bagged himself a few caps; Henry Thomas of Bath and Kyle Sinckler of Harlequins are interesting works in progress. But there is something different about this fellow: an X-factor ability to put himself in the right place at the right time, which shows innate game understanding. He needs to work on his fitness, but he scrummaged strongly against two Irish international props last weekend and his first-half tackle count was very high. He also has size on his side.

Maro Itoje

Age: 21

Position: Lock/Flanker

Club: Saracens

Caps: 0

You do not have to be Carwyn James to recognise the World Cup-winning England age-group captain as a long-term international in the making. You could be Sid James, Jesse James or King James I and still see it, plain as the nose on your face. The sight of Itoje clamping himself around an opponent as powerful as the French forward Louis Picamoles and driving him back from whence he came during last week’s European Champions Cup victory over Toulouse was merely the latest sign of a special talent who steps up in level as easily as he climbs the stairs.

Maro Itoje in action for Saracens (Getty Images)

Dave Ewers

Age: 25

Position: Blind-side flanker

Club: Exeter

Caps: 0

Zimbabwe might be a half-decent Test side if they could ship their exiles back to Harare or Bulawayo: the Leicester back-rower Mike Williams looks a proper handful, while Dom Armand has been keeping the international No 8 Thomas Waldrom out of the Exeter side. But it is Armand’s club colleague and countryman who has an immediate claim on an England call-up. Resilient, Trojan-like in his work rate and ridiculously strong, Ewers has been at the heart of the Devonians’ rise to Premiership prominence in recent seasons and has the cement-between-the-bricks quality that allows flashier loose forwards to trip the light fantastic.

Will Fraser

Age: 26

Position: Open-side flanker

Club: Saracens

Caps: 0

So much has been said and written about the England breakaway role and Chris Robshaw’s ability to perform it on the big stage, but the subject has generated more light than heat. Many see Matt Kvesic of Gloucester as the heir apparent; some say Brendon O’Connor of Leicester, the latest New Zealander on the beat, is the man for the task; still others support the claims of the Harlequins youngster Jack Clifford, who happens to play alongside the much-maligned national captain. Fraser’s injury record is not brilliant, but he is a hard-bitten scavenger who looks uncannily like the real deal.

Nathan Hughes

Age: 24

Position: No 8

Club: Wasps

Caps: 0

There is no disputing the identity of the next England No 8. A Fijian who could have played World Cup rugby for Samoa, the man from Lautoka does most of the things Billy Vunipola does, but quicker. He also reads the game as well as Ben Morgan, while doing a dozen things with ball in hand that the Gloucester player would struggle to imagine. The problem? He does not qualify for red-rose rugby on residency grounds for another seven months. The solution? Get him involved in training anyway, so he can hit the ground running in next season’s autumn internationals.