There is nothing new about the observation that rugby is a game of increasing power but, if we await the point in history when modern players have wrung every last morsel of actuated power from their jacked-up bodies, that longed-for plateauing-off has yet to be reached. The size of players reached that stage more than 10 years ago. There are signs it may even be falling. But the power of them, the sheer power, continues to escalate.
To watch Eddie Jones wrestle with this conundrum is poignant. England’s coach is, by rugby standards, small of body and large of brain, but there was almost a despairing tone to his musings this week as he announced his latest squad, which will gather on Richmond Hill on Sunday evening for a three-day camp.
