Is Alex Goode enough for England? It was a question debated not just by Saracens supporters after Saturday’s demolition of Glasgow in the European Cup quarter-final at Allianz Park when a player who has started one Test in the Eddie Jones era stood out in front of the England head coach.
Selection is subjective, but there is more to it than mere opinion. It seems that no matter how well he plays Danny Cipriani is destined to remain on the outside looking in. His opportunities in the past three England regimes have been fleeting, as if he were picked to prove why he had been left out for so long.
It seems to come down to personality with Cipriani, the outsider who cannot fit in to a tightly knit England squad. The two outside-halves, Owen Farrell and George Ford, have a bond that stretches back to childhood. Even a coach as strong as Jones is reluctant to break that and irk his captain, even if he believed Cipriani worthy of inclusion.
Jones once said that Cipriani’s place in the squad hinged on whether he was the first-choice outside-half. If not, the unspoken fear was that he would be disruptive and the outside-half did not last long in the Martin Johnson era, dropped after continually challenging the coaches. He left England for Australia, and while he did not delay his return, his reputation as a player who was difficult to handle has stuck with him.
Goode is different. He is a popular figure, but it is four years since he started a match in the Six Nations: he sat on the bench three times in Jones’s first campaign in 2016, coming off it once, and his only appearance after that came against Fiji the following autumn when he started at full-back and scored a try.
His dropping of a high kick was held against him, but that is the weakest feature of the player who effectively replaced him, Elliot Daly. Goode’s ability to cover outside-half was not needed with Farrell and Ford in residence and Daly had experience of full-back, centre and wing.
Mike Brown was the first choice at full-back until this season. He was not just a safer option than Goode, but he bristled with an aggression that was a counterweight to the relatively light three-quarter line that England then had. With Jones not one to waste his time or those of players he does not see making a matchday 23, Goode has remained at Saracens. Like Cipriani, his form has not been the issue; it is, in a different way, about fitting in.
Careers can be untimely. Stuart Barnes had the misfortune to be a contemporary of Rob Andrew at a time when England preferred steadiness at outside-half to exuberance. He would probably have had no more joy had he opted for Wales, the land of his education, where Neil Jenkins saw off a number of players who could trump his flair but not his temperament.
Earlier in his career, Goode was accused of lacking pace, so he worked with a sprint coach. In one sense that set the tone, judged for what he did not have rather than the talent and match-winning ability he showed most weeks for his club. At a time when Jones has expressed his concern about the reaction of his players when a game stops going to plan, Goode has his head up, blessed with the gift of time, but he takes calculated risks.
It is a week when time appears to have been called on the professional career of another player who, in retirement, may look back and reflect on the number of caps he did not win. Gavin Henson will not be offered a new contract by the Dragons and, at the age of 37, is unlikely to find another suitor.
Henson was part of two grand slams with Wales and toured the Lions in 2009, but he never appeared in a World Cup and stalled his career when he should have been at his peak by taking a long sabbatical. It was a period when he and Cipriani seemed to try and outdo each other for front page coverage, players who outgrew their sport in terms of prominence.
They were seen as mavericks, which is not the case with Goode who has earned the reputation as one of the most accomplished attackers in the Premiership at a club that are not regarded as the last refuge of romantics. Yet the solidarity and zeal that Saracens have now shown for a decade is complemented by a balance of personalities and ability. Goode and Brad Barritt in partnership against Glasgow highlighted the club’s spectrum.
It is something Jones would like to replicate with England, but he has less time with players than a club coach. It was he who persuaded Goode that he had more of a future at full-back when he was in charge of Saracens a decade ago. Were Jones still at the club, it is likely he would be asking why the international door had shut on a player who is performing at a consistently high standard.
Were form the issue, Goode would have a way out, or in. It isn’t and he hasn’t. If England are under new management next season, it may come too late for a player who is 31 in May. Attacking full-backs abound in Test rugby: Stuart Hogg, Willie le Roux and Damien McKenzie are in Goode’s mould, along with Ireland’s Jordan Larmour.
Who knows how Goode would have fared with England in the last four years, but as a player who does not tend to play within himself, he would have been worth watching.
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