Just like as in the Rugby World Cup, Saracens are once again the most represented club in the 33-man Elite Player Squad (EPS) chosen by Eddie Jones and unveiled today.
The London-based club have eight men in the training squad in Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, George Kruis, Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola, Owen Farrell, Alex Goode and Chris Ashton. Even with the already high number of players in the side, Saracens stars Will Fraser, Richard Wigglesworth and Brad Barritt can feel harshly done by that they were not also named alongside their teammates by Eddie Jones.
Maro Itoje is the only one of these players who has not already been capped by England, but he has played in everything else and won everything but a European trophy, something that Saracens are really gunning for this season after being so close in the last three seasons.
Itoje is also one of the players in the squad with the most potential. It is easy to forget that he is just 21, as the way he plays the game is with such maturity and understanding, that it looks as if he is 27. He is a possible future England captain after captaining both club and country at age group level.
The lock, who is just at home on the side of the scrum, is one of seven uncapped players picked by Eddie Jones in his first ever England EPS, a selection of players that has shown the world that he does not plan on messing around. He has left out the likes of Tom Youngs, Tom Wood and Geoff Parling – all good players who have done an excellent job for their country in the past and replaced them with a lot of young exciting talent.
It should not really come as much of a surprise to many people that a large amount of the England squad play their rugby for Saracens because of the form that the club have been in. They are unbeaten in Europe and had won all their Premiership games up until they lost to Harlequins last Saturday.
The brand of rugby that they have been playing has been labelled boring, but all Eddie Jones wants to do is come back from Murrayfield with a win in the bag – regardless of what it takes, and Saracens have proved that they can go to hostile places and still get the job done.
They are the second highest try scorers in the league (26 below Exeter Chiefs with 30) and have conceded the least amount of tries (eight) in the league as well as scoring a hatful of tries in Europe and picking up three try-scoring bonus points in four games as well as four domestically.
This is also the reason that all of the England coaching team have a connection with the London Club; Eddie Jones (coach), Steve Borthwick (player), Paul Gustard (coach and player) and Ian Peel (coach after Six Nations). Saracens are the form team in Europe and the coaches know the players well so it makes sense to pick a lot of their players because it means that the team will not need to spend as long getting to know each other and partnerships will either be resumed or very quickly fall into place.
Eddie Jones has said that he wants his side to play an attractive brand of rugby, and Saracens may be a very pragmatic side, but they do not make silly mistakes and will put their foot on the accelerator if they see that the chance is definitely on, and with the injection of a few different players, they could form the foundations for a very formidable England team that will be around for a long time to come.
