Why England Must Not Change Stance and Select Steffon Armitage

The "should he/shouldn’t he" debate over Stuart Lancaster’s decision not to pick Steffon Armitage for England has confounded pundits and coaches for the last 12 months.

With Ben Morgan’s broken leg, sustained on January 9, seemingly ruling him out at least until England’s World Cup warm-up matches, per the Daily Mail, the Toulon back-rower’s worth as a member of the Red Rose squad has again bubbled to the top of the agenda.

A quick recap of the situation

The Rugby Football Union’s position is that no player can be considered for England selection if they are not playing in the English system. As a caveat to that, under exceptional circumstances, Lancaster is able to look overseas for players.

Since moving to Toulon in 2011, Armitage has been a revelation, earning the European Rugby Cup’s European Player of the Year award last season, but Lancaster has stuck to his guns.

The appeal of victory in a World Cup on home soil, however, is enormous. If Armitage’s 2015 form achieves the consistent excellence of the previous campaign, England would be ignoring one of the best back-row players in Europe as they bid to claim a second global title.

But there is more to consider than just this.

Where would he play?

So far this season, Armitage has started four games for Toulon in the Top 14 at No. 8 and five at No. 7, per ESPNScrum.com. In the matches he started at No. 8, Toulon won all of them, and they won three of the five when he played on the openside flank. If Lancaster was looking for a reason to pick him, this inconsistency in selection for Armitage's club doesn’t exactly help the England coach.

In October 2014, The Telegraph's Mick Cleary wrote that this sort of detail was "for another day" and Armitage's form made him deserving of the chance to prove himself a worthy challenger wherever England might end up picking him.

We are four months down the line now, and we are in World Cup year. That detail is for now, and it involves axing Chris Robshaw as captain and No. 7 to give Armitage a go there. Not easy to see happening.

Equally, it is hard to envisage England shifting their No. 8 selection philosophy from using a big, ball-carrying brute who performs that role for his club week in, week out to a player whose apparent versatility sees him regularly swap positions and, in a squad so deep with options, sometimes sit on the bench.

If he were put in the squad, could England, a team bent on winning the Six Nations after two near misses, really use the tournament to let a player test out his attributes in two different positions while the team also attempts to bed in a settled fly-half and midfield combination?

Is his form good enough?

Armitage was Player of the Year last season in Europe. But has he been as eye-catching this term? The answer is no.

Samu Manoa, Sergio Parisse and Nick Easter would all be ahead of him in the queue for individual honours as No. 8s at present. The debate would not even have resurfaced if Morgan, so impressive on his return to the England starting lineup in the autumn, had not been injured. If anything, Easter's recent performances make him the man to reconsider for a return to the squad.

Elsewhere in the back row, Northampton's Calum Clark and Wasps' James Haskell are both pushing hard and are doing so in English club sides.

A dangerous precedent for the Premiership

The Aviva Premiership clubs are already outgunned by their French rivals when it comes to the chequebook. The RFU’s policy to only choose from English-based players for the national side is the one weapon they have in their favour.

It is already patently obvious that Danny Cipriani would not be on these shores if he wasn’t in with a chance of England selection. If he is overlooked for the Six Nations, Sale boss Steve Diamond has already hinted the fly-half will be across La Manche quicker than a jet-fuelled catamaran next season if England ignore him again, per the Manchester Evening News.

Picking Armitage while he plays in France opens the door for other players to depart. It would damage the quality of the domestic league and ultimately harm the national side, with player release made infinitely harder and the attritional nature of the Top 14 leading to an England squad full of battered bodies.

England’s pack is not the problem

Do England need Steffon Armitage? Let's not forget that when he left, there was hardly an outpouring of grief. We have already raised the question of how they would use him. It is unlikely to be as a No. 8 given they have better ball-carriers in that position, and it then becomes a political issue over Chris Robshaw and the captaincy.

With all that in the background, the more prescient question is whether a pack that is already, arguably, the best in the world needs Steffon Armitage? England can try to play like the All Blacks all they like, but to win the World Cup, they must base their game on a massive pack dominating the physical exchanges and giving their backs front-foot ball to damage teams with.

The first part of that equation is well within the current group of forwards’ capabilities, and it is hard to see Armitage adding anything to that.