Eddie Jones’s rotation by instinct for England shows there’s no substitute for nous | The Breakdown

The growing strength of the bench

The former footballer Rodney Marsh once said that the players a manager had to keep happy were the ones in the reserves. Those in the first team were content for that reason.

Rugby union did not have benches then. If a team lost a player through injury, it carried on with 14. Even when replacements were introduced, one forward and one back, they were allowed on only to replace an injured colleague.

They were not substitutes and as teams became accused of cheating by pretending someone was injured to get another player on, an edict was made that no one could be replaced until a doctor had decided that someone was unfit to carry on.

Today, players on the bench are still referred to as replacements, although they are now substitutes, able to come on when a coach decrees. Use of the bench has been a factor in determining the outcome of a number of matches in this year’s Six Nations, not least in those involving England.

Their head coach, Eddie Jones, has to manage greater resources than his championship rivals. Injuries can be a blessing as well as a curse, but the way he has operated his bench in the last 12 months has been instructive, not just the changes he has made, and when, but the way he has managed disappointment.

The flanker James Haskell is a player who was too often on the bench for his liking under the two previous regimes. He was back on it for the matches against France and Wales this month after spending six months out of action with a toe injury and remarked that whereas before he was “gutted” not to be in the starting line-up, it is now an initial feeling of disappointment made up for the importance Jones attaches to the roles of what he terms finishers.

So when Haskell came on against France with 17 minutes to go, he was primed for action. So, too, was another long-serving player who had been a replacement for more Tests than he could remember, Danny Care. The pair played a prominent role in creating the winning try, scored by another player summoned from the bench, Ben Te’o, whose international career started in the autumn.

In contrast, when France brought off the scrum-half Baptiste Serin on 56 minutes for the more experienced Maxime Machenaud, there was no uplift. Machenaud had started the three November internationals but did not take to the role of finisher. In the second round last year, he came on at exactly the same time and in both matches the two props were changed in the 45th minute.

Replacements by rote have been a way for coaches to appease players left out of the starting line-up, saying they will come on at a certain time. Some coaches use match data to influence changes: when Wales pulled off the No8 Ross Moriarty against England in the last round after 52 minutes, they said their GPS system showed his performance was dropping off. They had a Lion in Taulupe Faletau to bring on: would Moriarty have been replaced if someone less illustrious was acting as the back row reserve?

Jones relies more on his instinct. In his first match in charge of England, at Murrayfield last year, he kept three of his replacements on the bench but made three changes early in the second half: at prop, second row and scrum-half, repeating it in the next game in Italy but not in the third at home to Ireland.

In last year’s Six Nations, Jones kept his captain, Dylan Hartley, on until at least the 71st minute, apart from the final match in Paris when the hooker was concussed 12 minutes from the end, and did the same in the first two Tests in Australia before bringing on Jamie George after 63 minutes in the third. Hartley has been replaced after 54 and 46 minutes this year: he had not played for six weeks before the start of the championship because of suspension, but he did not last an hour in any of England’s four autumn internationals.

All coaches talk about having a 23 rather than a 15, but it does not mean they have to use all 23. Jones has emptied his bench in nine of his 15 Tests in charge of England. In contrast, France’s Guy Novès prefers to bring on everyone, although he tweaked his replacement strategy against Scotland in the last round: for the first time since he took over following the last World Cup, he did not voluntarily change both his props at the same time and he kept the outside-half Jean-Marc Doussain, whose failure to find touch with a penalty ended France’s hopes of avoiding defeat at Twickenham after coming on for Camille Lopez, on the bench.

Wales’s decision to take off Moriarty early was widely debated, but more costly was the change they made at scrum-half after 64 minutes where Rhys Webb had complemented his back row. Like Hartley, he went into the Six Nations short of match practice, but would he have made the mistake of his replacement, Gareth Davies, five minutes from the end?

Davies ignored Wales’s custom of setting up another ruck after winning a defensive turnover when some of the backs are on the floor and passed to Jonathan Davies, who was not expecting the ball and his hurried kick went to George Ford who started the move that won the match.

Ford was still on the pitch, unlike the previous week when he was replaced by Te’o 12 minutes from the end as Jones went into Plan B mode, switching Farrell to outside-half and replacing the other centre, Jonathan Joseph, with Jack Nowell. Keeping something in reserve has taken England to the top of the table.

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