With just over nine months to go until the 2019 Rugby World Cup gets underway in Japan, England still has a number of questions looming over their squad and coaching set-up.

They now have just the Six Nations plus three warm-up matches to finalize their team and generate some much-needed form and momentum heading into the showpiece event, where Tonga will be first up on the September 22.

On the back of two dreadful World Cup performances on the bounce, England fans will be desperate for Eddie Jones to lead his charges into the latter stages this time around

2014-2015

England’s year prior to the 2015 World Cup draws many comparisons to 2018; a 50% win rate with six test match successes from 12, a mid-year loss to the Barbarians and a year-end world ranking of fourth (a position they spent the majority of 2014 & 2015 in).

However 2014 included a three-test series in New Zealand, which when added to the November match at Twickenham meant a third of that years’ test Matches came against the All Blacks compared to 2018’s solitary matchup, all four ended in defeat.

Stuart Lancaster’s England finished runner-up in all four editions of the Six Nations between 2012 and 2015, losing one game in each year, making the run up to 2015’s home World Cup rather ordinary.

The 2014 defeat came in the opening match away to France, England then won their next four 6N matchups to finish behind Ireland in the table on points difference. Then followed a 0-3 whitewashing by eventual World Champions New Zealand over the summer, before a fourth successive defeat to Steve Hansen’s side kicked off a November which was rounded off by a loss to South Africa and wins against Samoa and Australia.

2015’s Six Nations loss was handed out in Dublin, with wins against Wales and Italy and then Scotland and France on either side, then came three World Cup warm-up matches which served up a win apiece with France prior to England avenging that Ireland defeat in their last match before the World Cup opener.

Lancaster was widely praised for his overhaul of England’s squad culture, which coupled with solid results and England being hosts of the 2015 World Cup meant that they approached the tournament in high confidence despite being placed in a ‘Pool of Death’ with Australia, Wales, and Fiji. (England was second favorites at 5/1)

That overhaul was immediately apparent as 17 players were handed their England debuts in 2012, Lancaster’s first year in charge, before a further 10 in the Lions year of 2013, nine in 2014 and just five in 2015’s World Cup year reflecting how England’s squad became more and more settled as the World Cup cycle reached its conclusion.

One of those 2015 debutantes was, of course, cross-code superstar Sam Burgess, who infamously and unfairly became a huge scapegoat for the crushing fallout which was to follow England’s worst ever Rugby World Cup, a dispute which still rages to the present day.

It’s no secret just how poorly England fared in that 2015 Rugby World Cup, crashing out at the pool stages after a toiled opening win over Fiji was followed by successive losses to bitter rivals Wales and then Australia. This meaning England had the ignominy of having to face Uruguay in front of a home crowd at the Etihad Stadium knowing they had already become the first host nation to be eliminated before the knockout stages.

Of course, Lancaster’s role became untenable, meaning England has entered each of the last five World Cup’s with a different head coach at the helm. Defense coach Andy Farrell went with him (what most teams in the world would do for that coaching ticket at present).

2018

Despite the similarity to 2014 in terms of numbers and percentages, 2018 has been far more tumultuous and unsettled for the current England side.

It began with their worst ever Six Nations finish as they limped into fifth, where a routine win against Italy plus a narrow and controversial win over Wales doing little to paper over the cracks which defeats to Scotland, France, and Ireland antagonized.

A three-test summer tour to South Africa followed, with the first two matches seeing England throw away healthy early leads and hand the series to South Africa with a match to play, taking their run of successive defeats to five (or six if you include the thumping handed out by the Barbarians a few weeks prior). They regrouped to win the third test dead rubber against a softened Springboks side to ease the pressure and give them something to work with heading into the Autumn.

November finally saw Eddie Jones side emerging with a positive run of results, though plenty of question marks were thrown up over the performances of a number of his depleted side. A fourth match in a row versus South Africa (shades of NZ 2014) saw England emerge with a controversial one-point win, which was backed up the following week with a controversial one-point loss to the All Blacks. The year was rounded out with a hard-fought 35-15 win over Japan –their first game against the Brave Blossom since 1987– and then a comfortable 37-18 win against Australia, their sixth in a row against the Wallabies and easily their best performance of 2018.

2018 saw seven England debutants, many as a result of unavailability of the usual suspects, the likes of Alec Hepburn and Ben Moon took their chances in filling a void at loosehead with the contentiously selected Brad Shields, as well as Ben Spencer, Zach Mercer, Joe Cokansiga, and Ted Hill also pulling on the Red Rose for the first time throughout the year to increase depth ahead of the World Cup run-in.

England’s coaching set-up beneath head coach Eddie Jones continued to shuffle through the year with John Mitchell coming in as defense coach in September and Scott Wisemantel’s position as attack coach being extended after he filled the role in the summer.

Despite a seesaw couple of years, England is still in a reasonable position heading into 2019 but with a number of other nations managing strong years, are third favorites to secure the Rugby World Cup at 8/1 behind New Zealand and Ireland.

What does that tell us looking forward to 2019 and Japan?

It’s difficult to conclude exactly where England is at present, given the Jekyll and Hyde runs of performances which have marked Eddie Jones’ tenure thus far.

The injury ‘crisis’ which loomed over the autumn allowed a number of fringe and uncapped players the chance to impress in what was an ultimately successful November and means England is now better stocked in a number of positions than they have been for quite some time. With everyone fit and firing you would be hard pushed to select England’s ‘strongest’ 15 or 23 with genuine conviction, giving a welcome selection headache to Jones and his staff.

A sizeable improvement on their most recent Six Nations showing is the first necessity, trips to Dublin first up and then Cardiff a fortnight later will be real acid tests of England’s World Cup credentials. Three home victories will be the minimum expected, with Le Crunch allowing a final dust-up with France before they again do battle in Pool C of the Rugby World Cup in their final group match in October.

England then has three final tune-up matches at home against Wales, Ireland, and Italy over August and September, in which time their World Cup squad will be finalized and players will have one final chance to impress.

Pool C is incredibly difficult to call with England drawn against two of rugby’s most unpredictable Tier 1 sides in France and Argentina, as well as a USA team on a hot streak and a physical Tonga outfit who will be first up on September 22. England must come out of the first two matches against Tonga and the USA with 10 points if they have serious ambitions of topping the pool, after that it really is anyone’s with France and Los Pumas to come. England will be desperate to avoid a repeat of the successive Wales and Australia defeats from 2015’s edition, the reward for making it out of Pool C is likely to be a match-up with one of those two and perhaps a chance of some revenge.

Check back on Friday when we will look at the next team and where they are less than a year out from the Rugby World Cup.