Ok, ready to take a bit of a more nuanced view than my last few posts.
I'm fairly disappointed, but not really as much as everyone else. For me, the question is whether Jones can get out of certain players what other coaches weren't able to. So:
Hartley: As choice of captain? I'm totally fine with this. Three yellows in 66 games seems fairly average for a hooker. Don't really understand the argument that this is too high. For me, captaincy is the one role which, as fans, we get very little insight into. We don't get many close-ups of the captain communicating with the team. We don't get anything off-the-field. The little we see is communication with the referee. So I'm happy to leave this call to Jones. Hartley captained Saints for six years. He's probably the most experienced leader in the England set-up. From what I can tell, he's a fairly popular captain too. At 30, I suspect he will fade before the next WC, and this will be a short-term appointment, allowing a younger leader to come of age. (Launchbury?) I also suspect that Jones is thinking the same thing, and wanted more time with the squad to scope out his more permanent captain.
As choice of hooker? Slightly disappointed because he isn't the form pick. But what Hartley has on George is years of being the form pick. Hartley has been the form pick for most of the last four years. Not that that's saying much, and George may have another level. But also, George may go backwards too. I'm okay with him coming off the bench for a few games first.
Haskell: Having thought about it, I'm not sure I buy the argument that some top club performers can't hack it at international level. The question for me is whether their coach uses them in the way that allows them to hack it. For instance, Ashton had 0% chance of doing well under Lancaster. Lancaster didn't allow his wingers to come in-field; he wanted defensive rigidity coming from players staying roughly in position. It wasted any chance of him using the support line skills he undoubtedly has. There was a period where Ashton was one of the best wingers in the world, but that was under Johnson. Clearly, the question isn't whether Ashton can succeed on the international scene, but whether his coach uses him in the right way.
But for me, it doesn't look like Jones will use Haskell in the right way. I can't remember who said it, but the argument that we should pick one of Robshaw, Wood or Haskell, never two, holds with me. I think Haskell could make a decent 6 at international level, provided that specialists are picked in other positions, giving Haskell a sense of specialism in his lack of specialism. That being said, if Jones has our second rows acting more like second rows, then we may see something a little more out of Robshaw/Haskell.
Devoto: Trying to make sense of this, him not being first choice for club and all. I suspect that Jones wants him as a Tuilagi stand-in, until Tuilagi has a couple of games under his belt. I suspect Tuilagi will be back before the end of the Six Nations. We do lack physicality in the backline. I do hope that he'll make it as an international in the future. And I'm hoping he'll be first-choice at another club next season. But it might be too soon of a step up. It's a bit surprising that Hill, who is at least starting for club, didn't take the spot.
Ford/Farrell: I've watched less rugby this season than in previous, but I have done a fair bit of reading to keep up, and it seems Farrell has come a long way to deserving the first-choice 10 shirt this season, whereas Ford hasn't. Farrell, for me, will never have the skills to make it as a 12. So why Jones wants to have the worst of both worlds by picking them together... I can only think of one idea. Jones is an Aussie and follows the long-held Aussie tradition of having a 10-like inside centre. But he's wasting his time with Farrell there. My hope is that Farrell is a stand-in for Slade.
Goode: Yeah, not much making sense of this. Both Watson and Nowell can play fullback too.
Marler: Not sure how he's getting on this season compared to Mullan. If it's like last season, this is a call I don't get very much.
This announcing the team two weeks in advance is surely hamstringing the England team. Scotland will no doubt use this information to plan their training.
