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England explain 'pace on the game' reason for backing No9 Randall

(Photo by Dan Mullan/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

A desire to put pace on the game early is the prime reason given by Eddie Jones for retaining the youthful Harry Randall at scrum-half in place of the vastly more experienced Ben Youngs, who has to settle for making his record-breaking 115th England appearance from the Twickenham bench this Saturday. Having been an unused sub in the Six Nations round one loss to Scotland, the 24-year-old Randall was promoted to start last time out away to Italy. 

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The expectation for the upcoming round three game versus the Welsh was that the No9 jersey would revert back to Youngs, who pulled level with Jason Leonard’s all-time appearance record of 114 caps when coming on as a replacement at the Stadio Olimpico.

However, rather than recall Youngs to a starting line-up that shows four changes from the XV that ran out against the Italians, England boss Jones has opted to keep the record-setting 32-year-old in reserve in the hope that the quick-hands partnership of Randall in tandem with out-half Marcus Smith can cause multiple early problems for the Wales defence. 

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“We want to put some pace on the game early,” explained Jones on Thursday after he named an England XV that included Manu Tuilagi, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Kyle Sinckler and Courtney Lawes at the respective expense of the axed Joe Marchant and the benched Jamie George, Will Stuart and Nick Isiekwe.  

“We feel like there will be some opportunities against Wales early in the game and Harry each week has increasingly been in better form. He is sharp around the ruck, gives us a bit of that instinctiveness with his ability to take quick taps and run quickly.

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“And then the converse of that is we have got Ben Youngs to finish the game and these games always tend to go to the wire. It’s almost like a narrative that is built into a Wales-England contest, it is going to go down to the wire and it is going to be (decided in) the last 20. Imagine having a half-back of 115 caps in the best form of his career coming on to manage that last 20 minutes.

“It’s a great testament to his resilience, his durability and his ability to keep improving. To play 115 caps you have to have a desire to want to keep improving. I was lucky enough to coach George Gregan, who played well over 100 caps (for Australia). They are both similar in their mindset, different sort of players but both good team men, play hard for the team, want to keep improving and know their strengths and know their weaknesses.” 

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SK 49 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

The way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.

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