I can see your point. My view is that Jones has persisted long enough with favourites who have not delivered. We already have some positions with absolutely no depth (9) and we don't need more. There is only a limited amount of time now before the next world cup. Assuming tours happen as normal I count it as 29 matches maximum. Yes they might find 1 or 2 more. For some players even if they were to play every single game from now on they would only just be around 30 caps. We don't have time to hope that a player will come good, when we've been hoping for that for the last 3 years or more. (Anyone able to accurately say how long it's been).
I know we had this argument in 2018, but tbh 2019 world cup was similar to 2020. We didn't play great, but managed to win and added extra shine to performances that didn't deserve them. We've had a few good wins, NZ, australia, ireland and france in 2019. But otherwise we played poor opposition and it made us look better than we were. We've had more off performances than on performances. We also have a team that has absolutely no ability to adapt when it's not working. Who only play to the tactics and not what is in front of them. I've said before that while Jones says he wants a team that plays heads up rugby, he has actually got a team that does the opposite. Even after this game, apparently it was just 'an off day'. No it's the culmination of numerous poor performances and reflects a team that is playing boring, predictable rugby and cannot play any other way.
You know what after writing this I'm in the Jones out camp. I think he's reached the limit of what he can do and we're headed in completely in the wrong direction. The world cup semi-final was the aberration, not yesterday.
I can absolutely see all of that - I'm just not there yet.
"Were I in charge" I'd be looking at our squad in general, and thinking...
Front row is doing fine, 3 genuine options in all 3 positions. I'd be looking to get some game time into those 3rd choices though, especially hooker.
Second row is doing fine. Itoje should be our captain by now, then we've 2 experienced pros who any country would be happy to have fitting alongside him. Then we've 2 younger guys to train up as future planning (even if I'm not personally convinced by either of them they look to be "good enough")
Backrow is an embarrassment of riches, and none should be thinking themselves secure in the squad, let alone the starting XV. There's some experimentation with balance to be done, but otherwise the net couple of years is about getting the less experienced members more comfortable at this level. In theory, you can only pick a bad backrow if you start putting locks back there - so pick on form and what the opposition would least like you to. As you can't just keep chopping and hanging, I'd be looking to rotate between Underhill, Curry, Willis, Wilson and Earl - Billy can come back in if/when he finds his mojo again. Simmonds, Ludlam et al will have to either up their game, or wait for injuries, sorry guys.
Halfbacks.... Hmmm... Youngs isn't good enough, but there's nobody obviously better, so we either need to identify someone promising and gamble, or ease 2-3 options in from the bench. There's no-one I'm convinced by at SH, but we can't repeat the mistakes of the last 6 years by refusing to look at any of them. Ford is our best FH, Farrell is a decent international FH but lacks flexibility; Simmonds and Smith need to get out on the pitch a dozen times each and see what they can do. Both halfback positions are conundrums; one because there aren't any obvious options, and one because there aren't enough spaces for the options we have.
Centres... We've got plenty of OCs, with a variety of form, health and experience; we've just let our best bets at IC move to Scotland and Wales, due to trying to fit both Ford and Farrell into the XV. Lawrence needs to be stuck with, I'd be working on Exeter to get Slade a dozen starts at IC rather than having to experiment at international level, and never having the freedom to finish the experiment.
Wing slots are doing fine, May and Watson are both world class, Daly can be, Nowell and Coka (once fit mentally as well as physically) offer good options, and there are plenty of younger guns looking to force their way in.
Full back - Daly is in possession, but very vulnerable to someone else getting their feet under the table. Malins is in prime position there, Tom De Glanville looks like he'll provide the competition as a like-for-like replacement. Malins and TdG "just" need enough game time to settle
