Jeremy Guscott: Launchbury has been the find of the season

Joe Launchbury has been the find of the international season. The England lock has a great range of skills for a big man, and  his handling ability is so sure that it reminds me of a basketball player on a rugby field. He also has great reading and understanding of the game. This guy is going to be exceptional – he’s a sponge who can absorb information and grow. He gets it. People are born to play a sport, and when it comes to Rugby Union, he’s got it all.
However, international rugby is all about striving for perfection, and although they are the only side with three wins, parts of England’s game have been less than perfect in the Six Nations, including the lineout. It wasn’t in the best nick against Ireland and France, and so Launchbury and Geoff Parling need to make the adjustments to get the rhythm and tempo right.
That is one of the reasons why the idea of making wholesale changes to a side that is successful is dangerous. I can see the need to give inexperienced players game time, as Clive Woodward has advocated against Italy, but if you make too many changes in a game like rugby there is a real danger that you lose cohesion and momentum.
There are other drawbacks too. I’m not convinced of the benefits of introducing young players to Test rugby for a single game as a job lot. Most young players do not want to come into a side with seven or eight other new guys, they want some experience and knowledge around them. You can see from the Saxons, where new players are often introduced in numbers, that it has its problems. In many ways it would also be disrespectful to the Italians.
England should keep most of the side that played against France, and my guess is that there won’t be very many of them volunteering to have a rest against Italy. You could make a case of resting the guys who have played the most, like Chris Robshaw, Tom Wood, Dan Cole, Brad Barritt and Chris Ashton – but I doubt that a guy like Robshaw will want to lose a chance to captain his country again, or a cap, and I can’t see Wood wanting to give way to Thomas Waldrom.
The midfield is another area where players need game time together. Manu Tuilagi definitely needs to play after his injury – you could see he was blowing at the end against the French – and, although you could put Billy Twelvetrees at inside centre, Barritt leads the defence so well that the side without him is different.
In the back three there are calls for Jonny May and Christian Wade to be included, but it would be a bit left-field to put them in now. At the moment the opposition struggle to attack England territorially with the boot because Mike Brown and Alex Goode return it with so much interest.
However, if you put in Wade, May, or David Strettle then you will probably concede territory because their first instinct is to run it. Also, physically they have not been battle-hardened, whereas Goode, Brown and Ashton have been through the mill.
However, I do not have a problem with the bench players who made such an impact against France getting a start against Italy – but it should be judged on its merits in each position. For instance, Mako Vunipola, left, deserves to swap with Joe Marler to get a run out at loosehead, but I would leave Dan Cole where he is because he gets better with more match time.
In the back row you could bring in Waldrom at No.8, James Haskell at blindside, and give Robshaw and hour at openside before bringing Wood on – but then Lawrence Dallaglio has often told me that he, Richard Hill, and Neil Back wanted to play as many games together as possible.
There has already been one change to the back row with Courtney Lawes introduced at blindside against France. Lawes looked a bit lost, and you cannot have a No.6 who doesn’t carry and also misses tackles. My feeling is that the Haskell–Wood–Robshaw combination went well against Ireland until Haskell’s silly penalty – and he paid the price by being dropped to the bench against France – but the game against Italy gives that trio the chance to work together again.
The danger with bench players is that they can come on and try to do too much to impress, but Danny Care and Toby Flood were effective when they came on against France, with neither guilty of overdoing it. In many ways Care is the easiest change to make against Italy because he has been so sharp. If the Harlequins scrum-half had been the first choice No.9 in the autumn no one would have been surprised – and he definitely deserves a start. Flood also came on and played well against France when Owen Farrell was injured. He looked fresh and fit, and has been in pretty good form for the Tigers.
England will lose between now and the 2015 World Cup for sure, but the fear of losing spurs them on. I don’t get the sense that they are tightening-up as the Grand Slam stakes get higher, but, instead, sides are working them out more.The French definitely slowed them at the breakdown – but even then they stuck to it, and stuck the match in their pocket.
This England side are in a brilliant place at the moment, and making too many changes will alter the dynamic of the team. That is not what is needed now.