2 weeks Ago By Katherine Lucas
There are three scrum-halves training in Spain with the aim of nabbing England’s vacant No 9 jersey for the November Tests, and each of them has a hard-luck story that could be about to flip into an exciting autumn. With Alex Mitchell absent through injury – suffering from a neck problem about which little is publicly known – the way is open for one of Ben Spencer of Bath, Harry Randall of Bristol or Jack van Poortvliet of Leicester to step in against New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday week. Spencer is the polished box-kicker with medals to his name from his days at Saracens and the captaincy at Bath now to emphasise his leadership qualities – but, at 32 years of age, he has just six caps for England, all from the bench and spread out over six years.
Something about the Stockport-born Spencer’s face has never quite fitted, whether it is his quiet-man demeanour or some other deficit identified at Test level. His England time surely has come, such is his form for Bath – so much so that the question is, if not now for Spencer, then when? Read Next This England squad is Steve Borthwick reminding us he's not Eddie Jones Randall is the jack-in-the-box embodiment of rugby as a game for all shapes and sizes: a feverish force round the fringes in a Bristol team who love to attack from all angles. He was the coming man in the Six Nations of 2022, when Eddie Jones was the England head coach, but he needed a hamstring operation in the autumn that year and only reappeared in a Test jersey as a substitute in the easy win on tour in Japan in June this year.
And Van Poortvliet? He can kick, pass and run with equal facility – an extra forward if needed, akin to Spencer; or a buster of moves through gaps like Randall, if the chance is on (witness his try for Tigers versus Bath this season). The 23-year-old Van Poortvliet had the cruellest World Cup experience, invalided out of the England squad before it had even arrived in France in 2023, after he injured an ankle in a warm-up match. Spencer, at least, played the last few minutes of a World Cup final in 2019, although his call-up in the week of the game came after he was initially snubbed by Jones in favour of the less obvious pick of Willi Heinz for the tournament in Japan.
Mitchell’s own tale is one of perseverance. He was regularly on the edge of England squads until the rollercoaster summer of 2023 when he was left out of the World Cup squad, then almost immediately called back in, due to Van Poortvliet’s injury, and almost as quickly became the unexpected first choice for the tournament in France. He held that status into 2024.
Forged by coruscating displays in an attack-minded Northampton backline, Mitchell’s heads-up style was both entertaining and in tune with the notion of a more expansive England, moving on from the tedious, kick-based strategy that Steve Borthwick said was necessary for the 2023 World Cup – he blamed a lack of time to try anything else after he took over from Jones. Borthwick’s right-hand man with England is Richard Wigglesworth, the senior assistant coach with a brief for the attack, who happens to be a former Test scrum-half too. England’s choice of No 9 and the tactics over the next month will show quite how expansive Wigglesworth wants them to be.
On Wednesday at the squad’s training camp in Girona in Spain, he outlined the scrum-half trio’s strengths and the measures they are being marked on. Read Next Borthwick's plan to get England back on track? Hire his old flatmate “It’s a good battle,” Wigglesworth said. “Three different nines but good players in their own right who have become very important at their clubs.
“The pace that Rands brings, in terms of the way he buzzes around and the speed of ball he gets. Ben, how he’s led that Bath team and what he’s produced for them. And then JVP.
.. he’s started this season as [Leicester’s] out-and-out No 1 and taken control of their improved start to the season.
So yes, we’ve got a selection headache at nine which is a good one to have. “They’re different and there will be some tactical implications there, but if you’re going to play nine for England you need to get the ball away fast. Ben has improved that area, it’s something we spoke to [Bath’s attack coach] Lee Blackett about and they’re on the same thing.
“A big shift in mindset would be the thing – to the opportunities that are open to us and making those opportunities in the first place, how quickly we are getting back and facing the opposition defence so we can see what is on.” England’s video analysts are measuring the speed of release from every attacking ruck. There is not a set time period as a target; Wigglesworth trusts his eyes to know who is delivering what he wants.
A looser approach has ripples throughout the team, demanding more of every player in how they defend as well as attack. It could be that all three candidates in this scrum-half election contest enjoy some game-time before the autumn is out. That would tick a box of development.
Alternatively, if Mitchell, as is to be hoped, returns to full health soon, and he is Borthwick’s man when all things are equal, it could make sense to give just one or two of the three No 9s as much exposure as possible, while the giving is good..
