Six Nations countdown: six England squad dilemmas for Eddie Jones

England name their squad for the Six Nations championship on Tuesday. With the 2023 Rugby World Cup just over the horizon, here are six key questions for Eddie Jones to resolve.

Sporting life can be extraordinarily harsh. A touch of Covid, the rise of Marcus Smith and, most recently, ankle surgery have combined to make Farrell’s future a matter of some debate. Even if Eddie Jones’s captain, now 30, is instantly back on it when he returns for Saracens this month, the management will be conscious of what happened this time last year. Exhibit A will be Jones’s ill-fated decision to keep faith with some rusty Saracens that helped Scotland win at Twickenham for the first time since 1983. Once bitten, twice shy? With Courtney Lawes having impressed as a stand-in skipper, Farrell’s captaincy is also less essential than it was. Given Smith’s autumn promise, it would be a retrograde step not to start the Harlequin at 10. That leaves three options for Farrell: shift him to centre, stick him on the bench or save him up for later in the tournament. If Manu Tuilagi is fit then he and Henry Slade are currently the best English centre combination. But who would not want Farrell’s warrior example, iron will and match-turning goal-kicking? On a dark, cold night in Murrayfield, there could be a case for the bench option.

Let’s state the glaringly obvious. The best No8 in this season’s Premiership has been Alex Dombrandt of Harlequins. Those who still consider him a flighty risk clearly did not watch the Big Game at Twickenham just after Christmas. It is not just the way the 24-year-old pops up in all the right places, it is the depth of rugby intelligence when he does so. His attacking angles are beautifully chosen, he holds his depth to