Ellis Genge has emerged as the leading contender to captain England if Courtney Lawes and Owen Farrell are not passed fit to face Argentina on Sunday week.
Lawes and Farrell are missing from the five-day training camp here in Jersey due to head injuries and neither yet has a firm date to return.
In their absence England assistant coach Richard Cockerill said Genge not only had the “trust” of Eddie Jones’ management team but “strong leadership qualifications”. Cockerill, who signed a raw and fiery Genge in 2016 when boss of Leicester, waxed lyrical about the Bristol prop.
And England’s senior player Ben Youngs agreed the 27-year old was transformed from the “rough diamond” who arrived at Leicester doing “crazy rhino runs”.
Cockerill said: “Ellis has matured a lot since I first signed him. He is a fantastic player who leads by example - and he's having more and more influence off the field as well. From his younger days he has turned into a very mature person and as a player he is one of, if not the best loose-heads in the world at the moment.”
If that came across as a glowing reference Cockerill was not finished. “Ellis has got a real handle on social awareness," the ex-England hooker added. "He is really socially aware, he knows how he needs to behave and when he needs to do it.
Who would you like to see captain England? Comment here
“As he has matured he makes better and better choices about what he does. He is a good man, a guy you can trust. When things get tough he steps up to the mark.”
Cockerill said it was not his place to talk about the captaincy, but admitted: “He’s done it at his club and done it well so we know he has strong leadership qualifications.”
England have not given up on Lawes, who has not played since last month, or Farrell, who is undergoing a 12-day stand down period after suffering a head knock at Exeter on Sunday.
But having Genge available if the armband needs redistributing is a comfort for Jones - particularly given the assessment of Youngs, England’s most-capped male player.
“When Ellis first arrived at Leicester he was a rough diamond,” said the scrum-half. “He had all this raw power and talent which needed shaping in how he played. He’d do these crazy rhino runs but now his ball carrying, his consistency of ball carrying is constant. That’s huge growth.
“When you’re blessed with that power and aggression you’ve still got to work out how to use it and be effective and he’s done that. Sometimes you have to tip your hat to people. I think he’s doing a wonderful job. I can’t speak highly enough about him.”
