THREAD....

“We’ll make a new team for the Six Nations and that new team will be the basis of going to the next World Cup.", Eddie Jones on the day after the 2019 Rugby World Cup final.

A new team can mean just one new player so let's look at what might actually happen.

As Jones was in charge for the first England match AFTER RWC 2015, we can take a look at what happened to the squad from that World Cup.

There were 32 players including Nick Easter who was called up for the injured Billy Vunipola.

(2/x)

Eleven of those players were aged 29 or over at the start of the 2016 Six Nations. Of those 11:

SIX - Nick Easter, Geoff Parling, David Wilson, Brad Barritt, Rob Webber and Tom Youngs - played their last England match at RWC 2015.

(3/x)

The other six aged 29+ when the 2016 Six Nations began continued to be capped from 2016 onwards.

Danny Care won 31 caps.
Mike Brown won 29.
Chris Robshaw won 23.
James Haskell won 15.
Tom Wood won 8.
Richard Wigglesworth won 6

NONE of them were part of the RWC2019 squad.

(4/x)

So, there were 12 aged 29+ at the beginning of the 2016 Six Nations, not 11 (sorry).

(5/x)

Two players from the RWC 2015 squad who were aged under 29 at the start of the Six Nations never won another cap.

Sam Burgess (aged 27) went back to rugby league.

Ben Morgan (aged 26) has not been capped by Jones.

(6/x)

Two other players from the RWC2015 squad who were aged under 29 at the start of the 2016 Six Nations played very little under Jones.

Prop Kieran Brookes won one cap.

Full back Alex Goode won two caps.

That leaves 16 players from the RWC2015 squad who were at RWC2019.

(7/x)

Of the 32 players in England's RWC2019 squad, the following 11 will be aged 29 or older at the start of the 2020 Six Nations.

Cole (32)
Heinz (32)
Lawes (30)
Youngs (30)
George (29)
Marler (29)
M Vunipola (29)
Kruis (29)
Wilson (29)
Francis (29)
May (29)

(8/x)

It doesn't take a genius to realise that scrum-half is a position which needs immediate attention. Loosehead prop too perhaps given Mako's injury record and the chance that Marler will go back into international retirement.

(9/x)

The England squad which was named for the 2016 Six Nations included seven uncapped players but only two of them - Daly and Itoje - became established internationals. Two of the others have still not won a cap.

So, don't expect a lot of debutants initially.

(10/x)

37 players have made their England debuts under Eddie Jones but only 14 of them made it to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Given their ages, the chances are that half of the 2019 squad will make it to 2023. A wholesale rebuild probably isn't required.

(11/11)

One postscript.

During the professional era, if England's RWC squad has contained at least 13 players from the squad from four years earlier, it has always reached the World Cup final.