I'm not sure I agree with that assessment. "Running with the ball" is actually a fairly broad criteria when applied practically. You have "ball carriers" for the purpose of wearing down the opposition and providing continuity in phase play - Itoje, Isiekwe and George are all international standard here if not consistent line breakers. Mako and Sinckler are freakish in their ability to make line breaks from stationary positions against set defences and are probably in a club of <10 tight five players that can do this globally. I'll agree that we are missing this type of player in the backs, but actually with the consistency with which forwards find themselves dotted around the field these days, this doesn't tend to matter hugely other than 1st phase off a full line-out or scrum.
Then you have "strike runners" (I've made these categories up, but hopefully you get the gist) who are tasked with picking of gaps created in the defence, exploiting turnovers and initiating counter-attacks/line-breaks. Here we have - Daly, May, Youngs, Brown (I don't like including him but he is difficult to tackle and frequently steps out of or ducks under tackles). Slade is also capable of putting in a good step and fend, although I'll concede he is more of a distributor than a JJ/Marchant/Daly/Te'o in that channel.
That leaves Ford, Faz, Curry and Robshaw. Both Flankers will carry all day if asked to, albeit with limited gain line success, but they are predominantly there to provide link play and support breakdowns. Ford is a pure distributor, but Faz has been hitting some lovely lines of late and I'd be very surprised to see him without a line break after 80 mins vs SA.
In essence, what I'm saying is, whilst not perfect, I don't think we will be short of options of people who can make an impact ball-in-hand. I'd happily be proven wrong, but I'm trying to think of successful sides that are significantly more slanted towards out-and-out runners than this and am drawing a bit of a blank. Conversely the Saracens side that dominated the final month of the premiership is arguably less blessed in the ball carrying department and didn't seem to struggle at all.
