England Back's Selection Dilemma

Mike Brown's Thumb Injury Being Treated

England not only lost the first test against South Africa on Saturday but also two of their starting backline. The impressive Mike Brown suffered a thumb injury leading to him having to be flown home whilst centre Brad Barritt suffered a horrific lacerated eye ball and a 'minor' operation meaning he will miss at least the second test. Hence Staurt Lancaster is left with a selection dilemma and below I will attempt to hypothesise and put forward a number of options for him to consider.

It would be hard after to Saturday to legitimately drop any player, and so it would be fair to keep the remaining 5 of the backline (Youngs, Farrell, Tuilagi Ashton and Foden) in the squad. Lancaster's first option would be to bring Jonathan Joseph in as well as Toby Flood. Reportedly England had been playing Flood at 12 in training with Farrell at 10 before the first test. With Flood at 12 Tuilagi would remain at 13 with Jonathan Joesph moving to the wing and Ben Foden moving to full back. The advantages would be the creativity of Joseph as well as the ball distribution of Flood and the extra kicking option. The disadvantage would be having a smaller Jonathan Joseph on the wing who would be vulnerable to Morne Steyn's beloved high ball. As well as this Flood is historically not the most accomplished defender and it could lead to a defensive weakness in the centre partnership.

The second option is more conservative but potentially a safer bet. Anthony Allen is on tour and part of a well functioning Leicester back line along with Manu Tuilagi, Toby Flood and Ben Youngs. Given Farrell's under par performance Lancaster may be tempted to move Flood to fly half and use the Leicester midfield before putting Jonathan Joseph on the wing. Personally, it was one of my favourite options with defensive strength and an understanding between each of the midfield players. Despite this, Lancaster has chosen Allen at outside centre for England's mid week game, making it unlikely Allen will feature on Saturday.

Another option for Lancaster would to play either Flood or Joesph in the centres with Alex Goode at full back, however, again Goode has been picked at full back for England's mid week game. The same issue applies to a number of players including the impressive Christian Wade who could have made an impact on the wing for England.

England's final option would be to play Ugo Monye on the wing or at full back retaining Ben Foden and putting Jonathan Joseph in the centres with Manu Tuilagi and Owen Farrell at fly half. Monye though has never traditionally been a fantastic high ball catcher but he has played in South Africa before with the Lions. His experience potentially puts him in a good position to start despite not playing for England since the 2010 six nations.

Ultimately there are a number of permutations that can be discussed, too many to be mentioned on this article. The article itself is mixed up and I understand hard to follow, but hopefully it gives an impression of what is going on inside Stuart Lancaster and Mike Catt's head. What I expect  to happen given the training and bench selections for both of England's matches is to see a backline of:

9) Youngs 10) Farrell 11) Ashton 12) Flood 13) Tuilagi 14) Joseph 15) Foden

Bench: Dickson, Strettle, Monye

Like it or not it will probably be a better kicking back line with more pace but lacking a bit of defensive nouse. Come Thursday the side will be kicked and this article is likely to be prooven wrong. If anybody has a backline they would like to see, comment here or tweet us @RugbyReview

by Sam Hall