Jonny May says tougher competition for wing places can only improve England

Eddie Jones says he wants a workhorse on one of England’s wings and a thoroughbred with express pace on the other – for the first time in his tenure, he now finds himself with a full stable of options to choose from.

Injuries, at one stage or another, to Jonny May, Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell have meant that the head coach has not been able to pick two from those three in any of his 15 matches in charge. He has broadened his search beyond that trio – Marland Yarde, Semesa Rokoduguni and latterly Elliot Daly have all been played on the wing and it is a quirk of Jones’s team selection that he has not named the same wings for consecutive matches in England’s last six games.

But for the first time he can pick from May, Nowell, Daly and Watson against Italy on Sunday. Last week the indications were that Mike Brown may hang on to the No15 jersey and Daly would switch from wing to outside-centre, leaving the two wide spots up for grabs.

So far in the Six Nations, May started against France but lost the place to Nowell for the Wales game and the two have not started together under Jones. Indeed the last time they did was in 2014, against Italy. On Sunday, however, Nowell is likely to play the role of workhorse, leaving May competing with Watson to be the speed option. “I guess me and Ant would be under the racehorse category, so I guess we are competing for spots with one another there,” May said. “We’re both quick guys and it’ll be for Eddie to decide who he wants.”

So who is quicker? “Honestly I don’t actually know but we’d be the quickest in the squad, I’d say. Elliot’s got gas as well, he’s been on the left wing doing well and it just shows – he probably wasn’t a winger but he’s come in and done really well. We have got to be at our best at training and on game day if we want to play. It’s that tight for spots.”

While Jones is always at pains to point out that no one’s place in his side is safe, his willingness to chop and change his wings is magnified by the fact Brown has started all but one of the past 15 matches. Out wide, on the other hand, as well as Watson, Nowell, May and Daly, Jones has on four occasions called on Yarde to add extra power and he gave Rokoduguni his second cap against Fiji. Sooner rather than later, however, the whole back three is likely to become more fluid with Watson and Daly both earmarked as long-term successors to Brown at full-back.

“It’s tough, you honestly don’t know who’s going to play,” said May. “But we want to be the best team in the world and it’s only going to make us better players, competing with one another to get in that team. Eddie can choose who he wants to win certain games.

“Eddie just said he wanted a different type of player for the Wales game in Jack, and he was awesome against Wales, he was strong, carried hard. We’ve all got to be our best and work incredibly hard and hopefully we’ll get a chance.”

Such competition for places means there is little room for error. Daly’s two starts on the wing, against France and Wales, demonstrate that his red card against Argentina in the autumn has not been held against him but May believes his early yellow against Les Bleus did him no favours.

“It probably isn’t a good thing, is it? We always get judged on what we do out on the pitch and that’s a negative impact on the game, whether it’s a penalty or a mistake,” he said. “You can’t use that as an excuse, you can’t say it was just a bit of bad luck. It may be a bit annoying that those things happen but at this level it can’t happen so I can’t let it happen again.”

May’s eccentricities and elastic running style make him a popular figure on and off the field and as revealed earlier this month, he and Ben Te’o have hit it off over discussions about North Korea. But May was suitably diplomatic over Te’o’s claims the pair were set to pack their bags for Pyongyang.

“We were only joking around, I didn’t actually want to go to North Korea. But it’s an interesting place and we watched a few documentaries on it. It’s pretty scary what goes on there. It’s an eye-opener,” May said. “You start watching a couple of things and you get into it and you think, ‘Oh my god, I’ll watch a bit more’ and I watched a few documentaries on YouTube about it and it is fascinating – it’s scary how different their lives are over there.”