It may still be 18 months until England play their first pool game at the 2019 World Cup, against Tonga in Sapporo, but the countdown clock is beginning to tick ever more loudly before Eddie Jones’s project is intended to reach fruition in Japan. That is not intended to be an alarmist statement in response to the defeat by Scotland; merely a recognition that the opportunities for substantial change are dwindling fast. Starting with the game in Paris on Saturday, England have only 14 internationals remaining before their World Cup squad gathers in summer next year. There will still be two or three warm-up games before the trip to Japan, with opponents yet to be confirmed, but those games are only generally used for fine-tuning,…

Source: The Times March 07, 2018 12:00 UTC