The English midfield: a decade-and-a-half-long conundrum that four England head coaches have conclusively failed to solve and which a fifth, Eddie Jones, has puzzled over for much of his three years in charge. Brian Ashton, Andy Robinson, Stuart Lancaster and Martin Johnson could not crack it, neither could a hatful of rugby league converts — Henry Paul, Andy Farrell, Shontayne Hape and, most destructively of all, Sam Burgess — nor innumerable pub debates about the benefits of a passer, or a kicker, or a truck-it-up-the-middle type. As The Times pointed out at the end of last week, in the past five years, since Manu Tuilagi last started a Test, England have fielded 20 different combinations at fly half, inside centre and outside centre.

Source: The Times February 05, 2019 17:03 UTC