Eddie Jones had a theory when he was coaching England that you needed five world-class players to win the World Cup. Clive Woodward, the only coach to do so with England, had a similar, if more ambitious mantra, specifically instructing his players to set about becoming the best in the world in their position.
Picking a world XV is entirely subjective but it is fair to say that not many England players would make it into most of those selected. There would be significantly more from Fiji – their World Cup quarter-final opponents on Sunday – in a lot of them, given the star qualities of Levani Botia, Semi Radradra and Waisea Nayacalevu to name three. That rankles with England and Ben Earl, who starts at No 8, in particular.
