For anyone who watched England's autumn internationals, the question of who should be England's full back come the 6 nations, would appear to be an odd one.
Having been thrashed by the 3 southern hemisphere nations, there wasn't much to cheer about but the one constant ray of sunshine throughout all the games was Delon Armitage, the man who as it stands owns the England no.15 shirt.
At the start of the season few people would have predicted that Armitage would have made the England starting line up. Matthew Tait seemed the obvious choice and Josh Lewsey was his back up in the elite squad. However, with Tait's injury and Lewsey's loss of form Nick Abendanon was called up and seemed a dead cert to get his chance, until that is he got injured.
Enter Armitage who had been having an exceptional season with London Irish and who, whilst 4th or maybe even 5th choice (Olly Morgan probably would have got the nod were he too not injured), was certainly one of the form backs of the premiership. I describe him as a form back and not a form full back as he often finds himself playing at centre and wing for his club, with Peter Hewat Irish's no.1 full back.
So it is to his massive credit that he finished the series as one of the very few players to emerge with his star rising. He looked exciting in attack when given the opportunity and in defence he was solid as a rock under the high ball, plenty of which were aimed in his direction. He also has a boomer of a kick on him and is the first England back three player for some time who I can remember really clearing his lines with some proper clout.
Martin Johnson singled him out for praise and rightly so. His position as the side's full back seems to be set in stone. However, the performances of a now fit Nick Abendanon at Bath cannot be ignored. He has always been a terrific runner who can bamboozle defences but this season he has added defensive stability to his game which has made him a better all round no.15.
I am not suggesting for a second that England drop Delon Armitage from the XV but my question is whether both players could have places in the same line up? Abendanon is an out and out full back and this is where I'd like to see him for England offering the side some real attacking flair when running from deep. I would then suggest England slot Armitage in at 13 in the place of Jamie Noon. For me Noon does not offer enough at international level where a solid defence and tireless work rate is simply not enough.
Armitage often plays at centre for Irish so could he slot in along side Flutey and Cipriani in the England midfield? If you then had a back three of Strettle, Simpson-Daniel and Abendanon surely England would start to score some tries and cut open defences.
It might not be a solution which Martin Johnson would consider but I'm a firm believer that you should pick your best players and as Nick Abendanon is playing some outstanding rugby right now, it would be a harsh call to leave him on the sidelines.
It's always difficult for me to pick a position based on "form". I think the form in question should be at the test level. The club scene is littered with 1 or 2 cappers, who have impressed for a season or two, made it to the test team and been dropped because they couldn't hack it (ok I'm a Wasps fan so have better knowledge of this than most - see Van Gisbergen, Tom Voyce, Faster Waters [best defensive centre Engaland has ever seen], etc). My point is that the chaps metioned in brackets have torn teams apart on the Eurpean stage but never quite made it on the international front. This is not because they lacked form (for their club) but because they probably (in Mr A Robinson's questionable opinion in some cases) didn't do the job at test level. Now, Armitage for me must therefore be a shoe in. Showed form, skill, confidence and big bollocks. Abendanon.... haven't seen enough, and it will never be enough for me how well he does at his club until he has a few games at test like Mr Armitage's first 3. I know we need to pick on form, and to do that you have to select guys that are playing well for their clubs, but once you've got someone there who can so obviously do the job... well, I'm not sure we should be debating how to replace him.
In case I missed anyone: Perry, Hodgson (I mean, come on, he was the stand out best fly half in the Premiership whilst being totally shit for England), Cueto (?), Ryan Lamb (OK, mayhave more to come), Anthony Allen (perhaps more to come, but if we're going on club form then perhaps he should be there more often)... and the rest. Sorry, sure there's loads more. Perhaps the wider audience could come up with a top ten of 1 cap wonders?
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