The head coach must take a leaf out of Warren Gatland's book when it comes to making a decision over the England captaincy
The England squad will gather in little more than a month to start preparing for the autumn internationals and there is already speculation that Chris Robshaw will be replaced as captain.
Tom Wood led the side in Robshaw's absence in Argentina in the summer and has been touted as the favourite to take over: the other contender, Dylan Hartley, had to rehabilitate himself after his dismissal in last May's Premiership final, the latest disciplinary blemish in his career that prompted the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, to sit down with the hooker and explain that the next strike, as it were, and he would be out of the squad.
Robshaw has helped England recover from the 2011 World Cup campaign and its polluted fall-out. They have lost only to Wales in two Six Nations campaigns and they have defeated New Zealand. The 2015 World Cup hosts are third in the world rankings ahead of November's international campaign with South Africa, who still have matches in the Rugby Championship to play, not too far ahead of them.
He was not, though, chosen by the Lions for the summer tour to Australia, nor was Wood, both victims of the way England collapsed to Wales in the final round of the Six Nations in Cardiff. At the start of the tournament, when England emphatically defeated Scotland and Ireland won in Cardiff, it looked as if the men in white would provide the bulk of the Lions squad.
The World Cup is two years away and England have developed, as the Saxons squad shows, strength in depth in many positions. But two years out from the World Cup they are different to one of their group rivals, Wales, in that they have few players who can be regarded as established, automatic starters.
When he took over in March 2012, Lancaster said that he wanted England to be one of the most experienced teams in the 2015 World Cup with an average of around 50 caps. That may happen, although Wales, who only have to nurse Mike Phillips, Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones between now and September 2015, will very probably have considerably more than that.
Lancaster has a number of options in the back row, although the knee ligament injury suffered by Tom Croft on the opening weekend of the season, which looks like ruling him out for the entire campaign, strengthens Wood's claim on the No6 jersey. Robshaw has Matt Kvesic to contend with on the openside, although he would also be an option on the blindside, while Will Fraser and Luke Wallace are in the Saxons.
England were hampered by Ben Morgan's injury in the first match of the Six Nations against Scotland, lacking a ball-carrying forward in the back row, but Lancaster now has the option of Billy Vunipola and he has the chance of recalibrating that area of his pack.
When the England squad met up for a training camp last month, Lancaster told Robshaw and Wood that the captaincy would be determined by form. It would not be a matter of choosing the leader and then the team. Wood's Northampton have made a strong start to the season, routing Exeter and winning at Robshaw's Harlequins last week. Quins had needed the assistance of a post to beat Wasps the previous weekend.
The captaincy is an issue for Lancaster not only because of his options in the back row and a gameplan that is more expansive than it was in his first months in charge, but because he has reached the point where he needs, as far as possible, to know his first-choice team.
Other than Dan Cole at tighthead prop, Geoff Parling in the second row and, less certainly after his start to the season, Ben Morgan at No8 and Owen Farrell at fly-half, positions are open. Alex Corbisiero, Mako Vunipola and Joe Marler are tussling at loosehead prop; Hartley, Tom Youngs and Rob Webber are the options at hooker; Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes offer something different in the second row; the back row is open as are scrum-half, centre, wing and full-back, where Anthony Watson has made an immediate impact with Bath after joining from London Irish, although he is not even in the Saxons squad.
Wales went through the Six Nations campaign without changing their starting back division. England only picked the same set of backs twice and they never named the same pack. With the autumn campaign and the Six Nations followed by a three-Test tour to New Zealand in the summer, more continuity will be needed, although injuries invariably intervene and Brad Barritt, like Croft, will not be around in November.
Lancaster will not lightly relieve Robshaw of the captaincy but he also knows, after the 2011 World Cup, that he cannot be indulgent. One of the reasons why Wales have been successful under Warren Gatland is that he is not afraid to make tough, unpopular decisions, something that was overlooked in the brouhaha that blew up after the omission of Brian O'Driscoll from the deciding Lions Test in Sydney.
Robshaw has been instrumental in England's rehabilitation from the laughing stock of world rugby to a team that is aiming to reach No1 in the world rankings. He has also led from the front: he may not be an openside in the mould of Neil Back, never mind Sam Warburton or Justin Tipuric, but he never goes missing and he was still carrying the fight to Wales last March when many of his colleagues had surrendered.
It is that same fortitude and single-mindedness Lancaster will be showing in the coming months. Whether he retains the captaincy or not, Robshaw will remain a key member of the squad and he will not suffer the fate of Steve Borthwick 18 months before the last World Cup, who went from skipper to outcast.
*European debate must not affect international game*
European Rugby Cup Ltd, which is fighting for its future, issued a statement at the end of last week asking for the warring parties in the dispute over the future of the Heineken Cup to stop arguing in public and do their talking behind closed doors.
One of the co-signatories was Jean-Pierre Lux, the ERC chairman, but he appears not to have read what he put his name to because he started the new week by launching an attack on the English and French clubs who had declared their intention to start their own European tournament, calling them guerillas.
In an unhelpful interjection two days before the Premiership club owners were meeting to not so much formulate a strategy as start planning in earnest for the competition they are setting up with their Top 14 confrères, Lux called on the clubs to compromise.
Premiership Rugby and Ligue Nationale de Rugby want the European tournaments to be controlled by clubs. Their unions are adopting a neutral positions, but the four governing bodies who make up the rest of ERC are unequivocal in their insistence that unions should continue to be in charge.
It takes two to compromise, but Europe will either continue to be run by unions or clubs will take over. It is like a tug of war in which the rope has snapped. They were pulling in different directions and the clubs have decided they have been strung along.
The International Rugby Board has intervened, urging all parties to get together, but a key principle that underpinned the game in the amateur era is at stake. The Celtic unions and Italy want the RFU and the French Rugby Federation to bring their clubs into line because of an IRB regulation which states that no team can play in a cross-border tournament without the consent of its union.
It would be hypocritical for the English and French unions to concede that point having already allowed their clubs to run the Premiership and Top 14 respectively, allowing them to negotiate directly with sponsors and broadcasters and bank all the proceeds.
Why should a cross-border tournament be any different? The Premiership and the Top 14 are successful tournaments commercially, growing each year. The Pro12, in contrast, is hunting for a new sponsor for next season and attendance figures outside Ireland remain depressed.
It is a league run by the four unions involved and, as such, works to the convenience of their international sides. This summer's Lions have been eased back into action, whereas some were playing in the Top 14 last month. The Pro12 unions know that a European tournament run by clubs would put them under pressure from their own professional sides if qualification became purely merit-based.
Lux should well know that this is not an issue where both sides give and take. If the French and English clubs sign up to a new accord and ERC carries on as it is, without teams from Ireland, Scotland or Italy represented on the board, they will commit themselves to another six or eight years of abiding by rules they do not agree with.
It is the same for the four unions as they contemplate Europe run by the teams that take part in the tournament. The fear of revolution will continue to make them unyielding on the principle at stake, never mind the potential financial consequences.
ERC is looking for a mediator to help find a breakthrough, the reason why negotiations will resume, although the French and English clubs have yet to be persuaded to attend, to as late as 23 October. Not only does someone of the right stature and experience have to be found, never mind persuaded to have a go, but they need to fully appreciate the differences dividing the two sides.
Where all parties need to tread warily is that if the outcome of the dispute ultimately impacts on the international game in Europe everyone, including the French and English clubs, will feel it. The club game in France and England may be strong, but ultimately it is Test rugby that pays.
*Referees in the spotlight again*
The RFU is anxious not to get into a dispute with the Premiership clubs with the World Cup only two years away and at a point when attention will start turning to the elite player agreement, which is now past its halfway point.
Relations between the two sides have probably never been better in the professional era, but one area of contention is refereeing in the Premiership, with head coaches and directors of rugby, mostly in private, growing increasingly concerned at the feedback process.
The RFU is in the process of hunting for a replacement for Ed Morrison as head of its referee department after his abrupt resignation earlier this month. Premiership Rugby will be involved in the process, which will be overseen by Rob Andrew, and it wants a high-profile figure to take charge, not a minor whistleblower.
It also wants an overhaul of how referees get on to the Premiership list and how they are assessed when they get there. The season is only two weekends' old, but already directors of rugby have been howling in anguish, and not only because of the new scrum engagement.
That is without the input of Richard Cockerill, Leicester's director of rugby, on matchdays as he is serving a long ban for ranting at the fourth official during last May's Premiership final against Northampton.
It was only a few years ago that the IRB declared its intention to make referees more objective than subjective, but with the emphasis in the modern game about focusing on certain rules, in the form of directives, refereeing is more subjective than ever: the recent Lions series demonstrated that alarmingly.
It is hard not to feel sympathy for referees, if some do not always help themselves, pushed as they are by their paymasters, and prodded by those at the sharp end. They receive considerable public criticism and advice, but are not allowed to respond.
That should change, not least because there are times when supporters leave grounds baffled at certain decisions. Those who pay money to watch rugby deserve an explanation as much as those who are paid by the sport, but it is unlikely that will be brought up in discussions between the RFU and Premiership Rugby, just as spectators are being taken for granted in the Heineken Cup dispute.
*Still want more?*
Debbie Jevans, the head of Rugby World Cup 2015, tells Owen Gibson why England will host the best ever showpiece.
Robert Kitson outlines how the season may look under Premier Rugby's plans.
To subscribe to the Breakdown, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.
The England squad will gather in little more than a month to start preparing for the autumn internationals and there is already speculation that Chris Robshaw will be replaced as captain.
Tom Wood led the side in Robshaw's absence in Argentina in the summer and has been touted as the favourite to take over: the other contender, Dylan Hartley, had to rehabilitate himself after his dismissal in last May's Premiership final, the latest disciplinary blemish in his career that prompted the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, to sit down with the hooker and explain that the next strike, as it were, and he would be out of the squad.
Robshaw has helped England recover from the 2011 World Cup campaign and its polluted fall-out. They have lost only to Wales in two Six Nations campaigns and they have defeated New Zealand. The 2015 World Cup hosts are third in the world rankings ahead of November's international campaign with South Africa, who still have matches in the Rugby Championship to play, not too far ahead of them.
He was not, though, chosen by the Lions for the summer tour to Australia, nor was Wood, both victims of the way England collapsed to Wales in the final round of the Six Nations in Cardiff. At the start of the tournament, when England emphatically defeated Scotland and Ireland won in Cardiff, it looked as if the men in white would provide the bulk of the Lions squad.
The World Cup is two years away and England have developed, as the Saxons squad shows, strength in depth in many positions. But two years out from the World Cup they are different to one of their group rivals, Wales, in that they have few players who can be regarded as established, automatic starters.
When he took over in March 2012, Lancaster said that he wanted England to be one of the most experienced teams in the 2015 World Cup with an average of around 50 caps. That may happen, although Wales, who only have to nurse Mike Phillips, Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones between now and September 2015, will very probably have considerably more than that.
Lancaster has a number of options in the back row, although the knee ligament injury suffered by Tom Croft on the opening weekend of the season, which looks like ruling him out for the entire campaign, strengthens Wood's claim on the No6 jersey. Robshaw has Matt Kvesic to contend with on the openside, although he would also be an option on the blindside, while Will Fraser and Luke Wallace are in the Saxons.
England were hampered by Ben Morgan's injury in the first match of the Six Nations against Scotland, lacking a ball-carrying forward in the back row, but Lancaster now has the option of Billy Vunipola and he has the chance of recalibrating that area of his pack.
When the England squad met up for a training camp last month, Lancaster told Robshaw and Wood that the captaincy would be determined by form. It would not be a matter of choosing the leader and then the team. Wood's Northampton have made a strong start to the season, routing Exeter and winning at Robshaw's Harlequins last week. Quins had needed the assistance of a post to beat Wasps the previous weekend.
The captaincy is an issue for Lancaster not only because of his options in the back row and a gameplan that is more expansive than it was in his first months in charge, but because he has reached the point where he needs, as far as possible, to know his first-choice team.
Other than Dan Cole at tighthead prop, Geoff Parling in the second row and, less certainly after his start to the season, Ben Morgan at No8 and Owen Farrell at fly-half, positions are open. Alex Corbisiero, Mako Vunipola and Joe Marler are tussling at loosehead prop; Hartley, Tom Youngs and Rob Webber are the options at hooker; Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes offer something different in the second row; the back row is open as are scrum-half, centre, wing and full-back, where Anthony Watson has made an immediate impact with Bath after joining from London Irish, although he is not even in the Saxons squad.
Wales went through the Six Nations campaign without changing their starting back division. England only picked the same set of backs twice and they never named the same pack. With the autumn campaign and the Six Nations followed by a three-Test tour to New Zealand in the summer, more continuity will be needed, although injuries invariably intervene and Brad Barritt, like Croft, will not be around in November.
Lancaster will not lightly relieve Robshaw of the captaincy but he also knows, after the 2011 World Cup, that he cannot be indulgent. One of the reasons why Wales have been successful under Warren Gatland is that he is not afraid to make tough, unpopular decisions, something that was overlooked in the brouhaha that blew up after the omission of Brian O'Driscoll from the deciding Lions Test in Sydney.
Robshaw has been instrumental in England's rehabilitation from the laughing stock of world rugby to a team that is aiming to reach No1 in the world rankings. He has also led from the front: he may not be an openside in the mould of Neil Back, never mind Sam Warburton or Justin Tipuric, but he never goes missing and he was still carrying the fight to Wales last March when many of his colleagues had surrendered.
It is that same fortitude and single-mindedness Lancaster will be showing in the coming months. Whether he retains the captaincy or not, Robshaw will remain a key member of the squad and he will not suffer the fate of Steve Borthwick 18 months before the last World Cup, who went from skipper to outcast.
*European debate must not affect international game*
European Rugby Cup Ltd, which is fighting for its future, issued a statement at the end of last week asking for the warring parties in the dispute over the future of the Heineken Cup to stop arguing in public and do their talking behind closed doors.
One of the co-signatories was Jean-Pierre Lux, the ERC chairman, but he appears not to have read what he put his name to because he started the new week by launching an attack on the English and French clubs who had declared their intention to start their own European tournament, calling them guerillas.
In an unhelpful interjection two days before the Premiership club owners were meeting to not so much formulate a strategy as start planning in earnest for the competition they are setting up with their Top 14 confrères, Lux called on the clubs to compromise.
Premiership Rugby and Ligue Nationale de Rugby want the European tournaments to be controlled by clubs. Their unions are adopting a neutral positions, but the four governing bodies who make up the rest of ERC are unequivocal in their insistence that unions should continue to be in charge.
It takes two to compromise, but Europe will either continue to be run by unions or clubs will take over. It is like a tug of war in which the rope has snapped. They were pulling in different directions and the clubs have decided they have been strung along.
The International Rugby Board has intervened, urging all parties to get together, but a key principle that underpinned the game in the amateur era is at stake. The Celtic unions and Italy want the RFU and the French Rugby Federation to bring their clubs into line because of an IRB regulation which states that no team can play in a cross-border tournament without the consent of its union.
It would be hypocritical for the English and French unions to concede that point having already allowed their clubs to run the Premiership and Top 14 respectively, allowing them to negotiate directly with sponsors and broadcasters and bank all the proceeds.
Why should a cross-border tournament be any different? The Premiership and the Top 14 are successful tournaments commercially, growing each year. The Pro12, in contrast, is hunting for a new sponsor for next season and attendance figures outside Ireland remain depressed.
It is a league run by the four unions involved and, as such, works to the convenience of their international sides. This summer's Lions have been eased back into action, whereas some were playing in the Top 14 last month. The Pro12 unions know that a European tournament run by clubs would put them under pressure from their own professional sides if qualification became purely merit-based.
Lux should well know that this is not an issue where both sides give and take. If the French and English clubs sign up to a new accord and ERC carries on as it is, without teams from Ireland, Scotland or Italy represented on the board, they will commit themselves to another six or eight years of abiding by rules they do not agree with.
It is the same for the four unions as they contemplate Europe run by the teams that take part in the tournament. The fear of revolution will continue to make them unyielding on the principle at stake, never mind the potential financial consequences.
ERC is looking for a mediator to help find a breakthrough, the reason why negotiations will resume, although the French and English clubs have yet to be persuaded to attend, to as late as 23 October. Not only does someone of the right stature and experience have to be found, never mind persuaded to have a go, but they need to fully appreciate the differences dividing the two sides.
Where all parties need to tread warily is that if the outcome of the dispute ultimately impacts on the international game in Europe everyone, including the French and English clubs, will feel it. The club game in France and England may be strong, but ultimately it is Test rugby that pays.
*Referees in the spotlight again*
The RFU is anxious not to get into a dispute with the Premiership clubs with the World Cup only two years away and at a point when attention will start turning to the elite player agreement, which is now past its halfway point.
Relations between the two sides have probably never been better in the professional era, but one area of contention is refereeing in the Premiership, with head coaches and directors of rugby, mostly in private, growing increasingly concerned at the feedback process.
The RFU is in the process of hunting for a replacement for Ed Morrison as head of its referee department after his abrupt resignation earlier this month. Premiership Rugby will be involved in the process, which will be overseen by Rob Andrew, and it wants a high-profile figure to take charge, not a minor whistleblower.
It also wants an overhaul of how referees get on to the Premiership list and how they are assessed when they get there. The season is only two weekends' old, but already directors of rugby have been howling in anguish, and not only because of the new scrum engagement.
That is without the input of Richard Cockerill, Leicester's director of rugby, on matchdays as he is serving a long ban for ranting at the fourth official during last May's Premiership final against Northampton.
It was only a few years ago that the IRB declared its intention to make referees more objective than subjective, but with the emphasis in the modern game about focusing on certain rules, in the form of directives, refereeing is more subjective than ever: the recent Lions series demonstrated that alarmingly.
It is hard not to feel sympathy for referees, if some do not always help themselves, pushed as they are by their paymasters, and prodded by those at the sharp end. They receive considerable public criticism and advice, but are not allowed to respond.
That should change, not least because there are times when supporters leave grounds baffled at certain decisions. Those who pay money to watch rugby deserve an explanation as much as those who are paid by the sport, but it is unlikely that will be brought up in discussions between the RFU and Premiership Rugby, just as spectators are being taken for granted in the Heineken Cup dispute.
*Still want more?*
Debbie Jevans, the head of Rugby World Cup 2015, tells Owen Gibson why England will host the best ever showpiece.
Robert Kitson outlines how the season may look under Premier Rugby's plans.
To subscribe to the Breakdown, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.