How many of our players will be 30 or over if we kept the same squad from the WC?
Players over 30 can and should play and play well but we also need younger players incase of players drop off.
If you're going to drop players down the pecking order (and that's all it should be) due to age, then "30 in 4 years time" is simply way too young - "30 now" and there's a discussion to be had (and I'd be in favour, as long as it's "dropping down the pecking order").
34 is far from being too old to be playing very well at international level, but things may be starting to slip, be it outright pace, recovery times from playing/training or simple accumulation of injuries for the more prone.
Quite honestly, anyone thinking of jettisoning the currently 26 year olds because of age, is fetishising youth rather than thinking through their position. That or wanting change for change's sake.
Cole, Lawes, Youngs and Heinz, even Marler, Kruis, Wilson, Francis & May if you have to (though moving on from Cole and Francisc is no great loss). Tell them to get some R&R whilst we train up their eventual replacements, but neither age, nor 2 years out of the squad will count against them come 2022 when we start targeting France23, so long as they're playing well.
If you need more churn than those 9 players across all 6 units of the team (not to mention however many others are injured), then look to the deadwood who were only there to make up the numbers without complaining, rather than basing it on age (AKA, "merit") which adds Singleton, McConnochie whilst confirming Heinz and Francis.
Those 11 names (assuming 0 injury concerns...) is 1/3 of the squad, which is verging on too many already, though it's also 2, maybe 3 starters which isn't so bad.
It also opens up spots for a complete tight 5, a backrower, 2 halfbacks a centre and 2 back3 players (though we were already taking too many centres and back3 players to Japan as it was) - personally, I'd be happy enough to do just that, but keep a SH around to help bed in the new guys, and I'd be expecting Lawes and May to tear up trees and force their way back in within 12 of the 18 months I'm giving them "off" (mind, I'd be tempted to tell the entire first choice 23 from Japan to spend the summer on a beach and get a full pre-season in with their clubs - I just like the idea of the older guys getting 2 summers R&R)
