ENGLAND AUTUMN SQUAD SELECTIONS ANNOUNCED

Is the rest of the world meant to feel sorry for England and Eddie Jones following the squad announcements this week for Autumn internationals? England have more registered adult rugby players than any other country and 12+ professional teams - there is no way they should be struggling for front or back row options just because of injuries. And with the RFU set to make some community coaching staff redundant in a cost cutting exercise, the situation may get worse not better. I guess as an Anglo Scot, being asked to empathise with England's position in rugby is a bit like being asked to shed a tear for Jose and Man Utd.

With the Vunipola brothers, Chris Robshaw, Joe Launchbury, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson, Sam Simmonds and Dan Robson injured, Nathan Hughes banned and Joe Marler retired, Eddie Jones has been forced to name eight uncapped players in the 36-man England squad, including Joe Cokanasiga and Zach Mercer from Bath. Other new faces include Ben Moon, Nick Schonert, Val Rapava-Ruskin, Ted Hill, Mark Wilson and Michael Rhodes, who is the latest Southern hemisphere schooled player, selected for England along with Brad Shields and Ben Te'o. Winners include Dan Cole, Elliott Stooke,  Chris Ashton and Ben Morgan at the expense of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Dave Attwood, Alex Goode, Don Armand and the unluckiest man in the world, Danny Cipriani. Another leap of faith is that good players like Ashton, Te'o and Manu Tuilagi have not played much (or any) rugby this season, plus Alex Lozowski is banned for two weeks prior to the first game.

Alex Goode - one of the unlucky many

In Robert Kitson's excellent article in The Guardian, he sums up public frustration with Eddie Jones and his selection decisions - "...the English public badly want reassurance that key combinations in crucial areas of the team – front row, back row, half-back, midfield – will be settled before the World Cup in Japan next year. And above all they want to know if England will be reborn next month or are destined to under-perform, relative to their resources, for a third World Cup in a row".

Yes these internationals are a phoney war, as what counts is form in second half of 2019 in Japan, but no major international team wants to be tinkering with partnerships and units less than a year out. And with England's poor form in 2018, the pressure is on England to win at least 2, if not 3 out of the 4 matches in November. Eddie begs to differ and deserves the last word (as ever) - "But what I do know about World Cups, and this will be my fourth, is that the only time you need to be at your best is at the tournament itself. All the leading up to it is sparring. Sometimes the scoreboard doesn’t tell you you’re moving forward.”

Game on!

HEINEKEN ROUND 1 REVIEW

The first weekend of the Champions Cup saw five teams secure that all important away win, and more importantly, five teams lose a game at home. The stand out performance was Newcastle turning over Toulon, a great achievement, but symbolic of the French team's decline. Cardiff at Lyon was almost as impressive, especially with only 40% possession, with Saracens (at Glasgow) and Racing (at Scarlets) also winning away in tight games, thanks to some inconsistent refereeing.

Toulon are being left behind in European rugby

Teams "kicking themselves" include Bath, who lost another tight game against Toulouse, courtesy of Freddie Burns inability to ground the ball, when Maxime Medard knocked the ball out of his (one) hand just as he went to dot down. Many have fallen foul of the decision to head for the posts once over the line to make the conversion easier, even I have been guilty, getting a haematoma in my stomach courtesy of not seeing the fullback in my blind spot, before he hit me hard forcing me to drop the ball - luckily my team won. Edinburgh will also be feeling that "one got away" by butchering a simple late try against Montpelier, but were clearly the better team, evidence of their dramatic improvement under Richard Cockerill. Gloucester and Ulster secured home victories over Castres and Leicester respectively, whilst Exeter and Munster neutralised one another in a 10 - 10 draw. The only mismatch was Leinster's 50 point drubbing of Wasps, ominous for other teams in their group.

Round 2 up this weekend, where those losing teams face must win games if they are to qualify for later stages. Ones to look out for are Wasps v Bath and Edinburgh v Toulon.