Elliot Daly is ready to fill a void at outside centre for first club then potentially country.
The Saracens star shifted from the back-three to step into Alex Lozowski’s shoes at outside centre for Saturday’s 39-31 victory over Bristol. Lozowski could be out of action for a minimum of six months after suffering a knee ligament injury in Saracens’ 38-10 win at Harlequins on November 18.
England will be without Joe Marchant for next year’s Six Nations, with their World Cup No13 now off-limits for selection having moved to France with Stade Francais.
Daly has made his career in excelling pretty much anywhere in the outside backs, but could see an extended run in the centres for Saracens, and even England.
The 31-year-old still concedes 13 is his favourite position, but after 64 England caps and 13 years in the Premiership, he is not about to start being picky about where he plays.
“There’s certainly a long way to go until the Six Nations, a lot can change,” said Daly. “I just want to get out there and play, and wherever Mark McCall wants me to play here for Sarries, then I'll play.
“Obviously with Alex Lozowski’s injury there’s a bit more space at 13, and if I get a good run there that would be great. But I’m happy to go wherever for the team really.
“I do love 13, it’s my favourite position. Especially in the Premiership, I think you get your hands on the ball more, you’re always involved in the game, in defence and attack.
“I grew up playing 13 as well, so it’s easy for me to slot back in there if needed. But it’s always most important to do what the team needs.”
Saracens registered seven tries against Bristol for their fifth-straight win, moving second in the Gallagher Premiership. The men in black never quite pulled away from their west country rivals, but Daly was left buoyed by a battling win to cement Sarries’ recent winning run.
Saracens claimed their sixth Premiership title last term, their first since the 2020 salary cap breach-enforced relegation.
Daly and Company will clearly target another league crown and stepping through the levels again in the Champions Cup this term. But the Croydon-born star insisted the only route to silverware is through breaking a season down into bitesize challenges.
“I don’t think we’re setting things out that are going to happen in the future,” said Daly. "It’s just that, we take a block of games, we want to get better in each game.
“Obviously we played really well to win at Quins, it was one of our best performances of the season. So to back that up was always going to be hard, but I think against Bristol we were just slightly off. We’ll fix that, we know what we need to do.
“I don’t think the ambition will ever dip at this club, from the coaches, through the players to the kit men and the physios. We've got ambitions but we also want to play the best rugby that we can do.
“We took massive strides last year, how we played the game, how we took opportunities when they were on, and we just want to back that up this year, go one better and keep getting better. Whatever that is in the next game, we go after that.”
