Six Nations: England coach Eddie Jones primes Danny Care and Ben Youngs as doubles duo

Unsolved selection riddles persist in the red-rose operation despite Jones' claims that he has a 'clear idea' of his next starting line-up

Danny Care and Ben Youngs in England training (Getty Images)

Eddie Jones says he already has a clear idea of his starting line-up for England’s first home match of the Six Nations, against Ireland at Twickenham in 11 days’ time. He may well be in a minority of one. As far as the rest of the red-rose operation is concerned, there are unsolved selection riddles in all three rows of the pack, and another one at scrum-half, where Ben Youngs and Danny Care are engaged in a fight to the finish.

Or are they? According to Care, who was the creative spirit behind one of the more eye-catching of the five tries England put past Italy in Rome on Sunday, the line separating the infantry in the starting XV from the cavalry on the bench is more blurred than ever before. If it is still the case that every player wants to be in the run-on team, it is also becoming obvious that other considerations are driving Jones.

The new head coach argued in the immediate aftermath of events in Rome that the 23-man theory for modern international rugby is far more relevant than the 15-man approach, which he considers to be Old Testament in the extreme. He wants to tailor his selection to the specific problem at hand – especially regarding ways of hurting opponents in the last quarter of a game.

Care started against Scotland in the opening match; in Rome, the Harlequin was on the bench, understudying his great rival from Leicester.

“Eddie told me after the match in Edinburgh that he thought I’d played really well, so it’s obvious that I’d have liked to have kept my place,” Care said after contributing strongly to the second-half surge that yielded 29 unanswered points and gave England a 40-9 victory over the Azzurri. “But he wanted to change it up a little, to see Ben play and give me a run later with a view to killing off the Italians. I completely respected that decision.

“Of course, the starting shirt is the one the players want – you want to be out there having first crack at things. But as you’ve seen in this latest game, it’s very much a squad effort. Does that require a change of mindset from the players? Maybe it does. Maybe we have to come to terms with the fact that there isn’t a first choice any more. If that’s the way Eddie does it, that’s how it will be.”

When Jones makes a careful study of the evidence from Rome, he will surely recognise the impact made by another bench player, Joe Launchbury. The Wasps lock was anonymous to the point of invisibility against Scotland, but as he was suffering from an energy-sapping sickness bug, he could be forgiven. Restored to full health at the weekend, he performed well enough to move ahead of Courtney Lawes in the boilerhouse pecking order.

However, the squabble between the loose-head props, Mako Vunipola and Joe Marler, shows no sign of being resolved – Vunipola’s unusually broad range of footballing skills were in evidence from the start, while Marler’s heavy scrummaging after the break was worth its weight in euros – and the scrum-half dispute could rumble on long-term.

If Youngs picked up the “man of the match” gong, presumably on the strength of a sharp broken-field scamper in the first half and some educated work with the boot after the break, Care did most to increase the tempo to a level outside the Italians’ reach.

Ireland will not have so many decisions to make when they head for Twickenham on Saturday week. The flanker Sean O’Brien will miss the game with a hamstring injury and the wing Dave Kearney is a doubt with a shoulder problem, while the lock Mike McCarthy was concussed during Saturday’s defeat in Paris.

Worcester, sucked into the Premiership relegation scrap after a run of defeats, confirmed that the Springbok scrum-half and part-time wing Francois Hougaard will aid them in their survival effort by moving to Sixways with immediate effect. Hougaard is taking a break from international seven-a-side duty to play for the West Midlands club until the end of the season.

Meanwhile, the Walkinshaw family’s ownership of Gloucester has reached its conclusion after almost 20 years of investment at Kingsholm. The late Tom Walkinshaw, best known for his motor sport interests, bought the club in 1997 and opened up a route into the professional era. Following his death in 2010, his son Ryan took over the business management, but Walkinshaw Jnr has been looking to sell for some considerable time.

Martin St Quinton, a minority shareholder since 2008, has now moved into the majority position, having pumped in around £12m. He had initially been willing to sell his own holding when the club was publicly offered for sale last April, but has reacted to the failure of negotiations with a number of interested parties by taking full control.