Brendan Gallagher: Play Itoje and Daly in their natural positions

Sometimes we can get carried away and expect too much from out young players with their extravagant talents encouraging us to believe they can automatically take on every challenge and succeed instantly.
Consider for example the twin cases of Maro Itoje switching to blindside flanker and Elliot Daly being picked on the wing ahead of a host of fine performers in that position.
There’s no bigger fan of either Itoje or Daly than your correspondent. I’ve watched and reported on both since their school, England U18 and U20 days and know full well their incredible talent.
I’ve watched Itoje play a season at blindside flanker a year young for England U20 and Daly, at various times, pop up all over the park to good effect. The fact remains though that at senior level Itoje’s big-time experience has been exclusively at second row and Daly’s predominantly at centre with a smattering of wing and full-back appearances.
And, for me, Test rugby is almost always about specialisation, putting all your eggs in one basket and being the very best you can be in that one position. I’ve seen too many great natural talents slightly diminished by the ‘Mr Versatile’ tag.
At Twickenham Itoje didn’t play badly at blindside flanker, he is incapable of not contributing to the biggest of games in some significant way, but he was a long way short of the all-conquering beast we watched at lock last year.
There were mitigating circumstances, mainly that the entire balance of England’s injury-ravaged backrow was wrong. Gone was the extraordinary ability of Billy Vunipola to make the hard yards from a standing start and to remain upright until support arrives.
Nathan Hughes can make big yardage but relies more on speed and finding space and against France there was none of the latter to be had.
And gone, at least until his introduction in the second half, was the bustling energy and sheer elan of James Haskell. Switching Itoje to six was never going to be entirely straightforward but yesterday it was downright problematical. And possibly ill-advised.
Only when England rang the changes in the second half and Itoje moved back to the second row did we see the young tyro back to his world beating best as he won a succession of key lineouts and started making his presence felt against a mammoth but tiring pack.
So the jury is out on Itoje at six. He will undoubtedly grow reaccustomed to the role and the return of Haskell to starting duties will offer more balance to the back row but does Eddie Jones continue the experiment in Cardiff on Saturday? It’s a difficult one. We will see.
And then there is Daly on the wing. Last autumn we saw him careering up the touchline five minutes into the Pumas game and making a clumsy late challenge in the air on Leonardo Senatore that resulted in a red card. Nothing malicious but, not really accustomed to playing on the wing, he got his angles and timing wrong.
Last night, if we are being harsh, he should have scored that try early in the second half which the TMO disallowed as he trailed his feet into touch.
Nowadays the ‘jack-knife’ finish is common place at this level. When it is that tight and you get close to the line you flick your feet high into the air so that you cannot be adjudged in touch and bend and twist – jackknifing – to touch down. It’s a specific coachable skill that all the top wings have in their armoury but against France Daly didn’t think to use it.
Denny Solomona – England qualified next season – is probably the world’s best at the ‘jack-knife’ but Christian Wade, Jack Nowell and Marland Yarde are all extremely proficient and that’s before we even mention the unmentionables in David Strettle and Chris Ashton. England do not lack for natural try-scoring wings.
Going back in history I’m not sure that we ever appreciated quite what a magician Rory Underwood was in getting the touchdown. He was quick but not the quickest, strong but not the strongest and although he had a very decent swerve he had no slashing step like Gerald Davies.
Nonetheless Underwood scored 50 Test tries for England and the Lions, despite England hardly ever passing to him in the first half of his career.
What he did have was the mathematical brain of an RAF strike pilot whose internal radar picked up instantly the co-ordinates of try line, touchline and where his feet were.
Watching him tip-toe along the touchline, switching the ball to his inside hand and then almost using the corner flag by launching himself at it (not in touch) while stretching infield to touchdown was a masterclass.
Such virtuosity can only come with practice and at present Daly just hasn’t got the miles on the clock. He could well be an international wing of the future but that’s then, not now.
This week England will be operating deep in enemy territory and among the key decisions Eddie Jones has to make is whether Nowell might not be the best man for a very tough mission in Cardiff.