Most squad announcements test the thinking and sanity of coaches to the limit, but it’s safe to say that this particular England squad, announced in the UK this morning, probably had Eddie Jones wishing he had hair to tear out.

Injuries have played a part in wiping out probable squad contenders, although in truth it’s only Billy Vunipola out of the walking wounded who would have been a guaranteed starter. Then an epidemic of suspensions threatened to cause even more damage, and then there was the biggest brain-teaser of all: to rest or not to rest those who were on the Lions tour?

Throw in the rookies who made an impression on the Lions-less tour to Argentina and it was probably the hardest England squad to both pick and call in recent memory.

Here are the names:

Prop: Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers), Matt Mullan (Wasps), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs).

Hooker: Tom Dunn* (Bath Rugby), Jamie George (Saracens), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints).

Second row: Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby), Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), Maro Itoje (Saracens), George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints).

Back row: Tom Curry (Sale Sharks), Nathan Hughes (Wasps), Zach Mercer** (Bath Rugby), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Sam Simmonds* (Exeter Chiefs), Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby).

Scrum half: Danny Care (Harlequins), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers).
FLY A-LeagueF: George Ford (Leicester Tigers), Marcus Smith** (Harlequins).

Centre: Owen Farrell (Saracens), Piers Francis (Northampton Saints), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Alex Lozowski (Saracens), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs).

Back three: Mike Brown (Harlequins), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Jonny May (Leicester Tigers), Denny Solomona (Sale Sharks), Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby).

* denotes uncapped
** denotes uncapped ‘apprentice’ player

Not considered due to injury or suspension: Jack Clifford (Harlequins), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins), Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors), Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), Billy Vunipola (Saracens).

In the end, Jones named the majority of the players who went on the Lions tour, with 10 of them set to rejoin the squad. Four are unavailable – Nowell and Te’o through injury, Sinckler and Marler through suspension (both are unavailable until the Samoa game, England’s final match of the autumn).

The only Lion to get no mention at all is James Haskell, previously a stalwart of the Jones era, but now left out as Jones looks to the next generation at openside.

Other notable absentees include Marland Yarde – who was dropped by Harlequins for missing the captain’s run before the Champion’s Cup game against Wasps on Sunday – and Don Armand, fresh off a two-try showing in Exeter’s stunning win in Montpellier, arguably the form flanker in England and an ideal squad player for his ability to provide impact and cover all three back row positions.

Instead, Jones has looked predominantly to youth, with the likes of Nick Isiekwe, Sam Underhill, Tom Curry, Sam Simmonds, Zach Mercer, Marcus Smith and Ellis Genge all players with the potential to hijack even the most meticulous of World Cup plans.

It makes for an exciting squad, especially when, despite its youth, there are only four uncapped players included, two of which – Zach Mercer, son of former Kiwi international Gary Mercer, and Marcus Smith, the little thriller from Manila – are included as New Zealand-style ‘apprentices’ and are not really being considered for match day selection.

But it does raise some interesting points about how England are perhaps approaching these three Tests. Here, to me, are the main talking points…

The march of the playmaker
There are no less than six players capable of playing fly half named in the squad, so it’s safe to assume England are going to continue with their ploy of two playmakers at 10 and 12. In Argentina they took it even further, with Ford at No.10, Slade No.13 and Lozowski and Francis getting a start each at No.12.

Joseph is the only player among the centre options who brings something different (if you consider that Daly is an option for the back three rather than his club position of outside centre), so it looks as if England are going to be looking to play with width this autumn.

The lack of someone either in the starting line-up or on the bench to straighten play could end up a sticking point though and Eddie has made clear his wish for more size and power in England’s backline, although in the absence of both Ben Te’o and Manu Tuilagi it’s not as if there are many big bruisers knocking around.

England will be looking to play then, but they can possibly be trapped, passing for the sake of passing, metres behind the gainline.

(Simon Cooper / PA via AP)

The fatties up front
Hooker is a position that needs options developed, but Eddie has been hampered by injuries to the two other hookers he has capped. Both Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tommy Taylor picked up injuries before the Argentina tour England embarked upon in the summer and have yet to return, with Cowan-Dickie due back shortly but Taylor out until the new year, leaving Eddie short for rakers.

Tom Dunn would likely have been on the Argentina tour himself if he hadn’t been injured and deserves his shot: Eddie’s likened him to Dylan Hartley and he’s not far off, only Dunn can actually carry effectively, pass a bit and doesn’t get himself banned every few games.

Elsewhere, there was strong talk that Mako Vunipola was to be rested after looking tired at times during the opening weeks of the season (although in fairness, I’ve always considered that his natural look), but Marler’s suspension means that’s unlikely to be the case. Expect him to bench behind the Baby Rhino, Ellis Genge, however.

Genge has taken the Premiership by storm since his move to Leicester and he’s starting to have an impact in Europe too – just ask Castres. He emerged, alongside Harry Williams on the tighthead side, from Argentina’s bajada assault over the summer with flying colours. He likes to scrum and he carries like a taipan’s just bitten him on the arse and the opposition are between him and the anti-venom: many players have found themselves on the floor gazing up at the sky after attempting to tackle him.

Williams should see plentiful game time on the opposite side too, although mainly as an impact replacement: he makes a decent enough like-for-like for Sinckler in terms of his surprisingly deft handling and rumbling carries, although he lacks the Kitchen Sinck’s pretty-startling-for-a-fat-lad pace.

Dan Cole had one of the less draining summers carrying drinks for the Lions but is still first choice: from here out, however, expect him to come under increasing pressure from the two tyros behind him. Lastly, it’s probably not worth arguing any more over who starts at No.2 – it should be George, but it will be Hartley. I’ve made my peace with it.

The age of the 5.5
From one set of six to another – this time involving locks. With so many of England’s reliable thunderbolts out – Billy Vunipola, Sinckler, Te’o – the slack has to be picked up elsewhere, and it looks as if Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes are being lined up as possible options on the blindside.

Itoje is a lurking menace in the wide channels when playing at No.6 and Lawes has made the permanent switch there for Northampton this season with aplomb, playing the house down even as his team burned all around him in two eye-watering defeats against Saracens and a frustrating loss to Clermont in the Champion’s Cup last weekend.

Robshaw has been a fine servant for England and Jones has become a convert after his scathing reviews of his ability during the ill-fated 2015 World Cup campaign but he could now be a sacrificial lamb, at least until Big Boppin’ Billy returns, as England look to add firepower to a side that’s been shorn of it.

He could always be switched to the openside, but that would constitute a large volte-face on Eddie’s part and anyway, he’s not guaranteed to get in there either, as we’ll see below.

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

You wait years for one openside to turn up…
…and then two come along at once. Tom Curry and Sam Underhill both made their Test bows on the Argentina tour and both impressed in their differing styles. Curry is an all-action whirlwind, carrying, linking, tackling and jackaling, while Underhill is a defensive wrecking ball, a savage, indefatigable tackler and a limpet over the ball at the breakdown.

Both looked to the manner born. More interestingly is Exeter’s Sam Simmonds, who plays at No.8 for Exeter but is on the small side by the modern behemoth standards of international rugby. He carries hard and is fearless in contact, but his main assets are his pace and footwork; the player he most reminds me of is a certain Michael Hooper.

Eddie has said he may not think No.8 is his best position internationally, so it may be that he’s another one being looked at to step into the openside berth. The emergence of so many promising players in the back row – the aforementioned apprentice Mercer (odd that he’s considered an apprentice when he’s older than both Isiekwe and Curry, mind), the other half of the Twindaloo (Ben Curry), Will Evans – is probably the final nail in the international rugby coffin of the Archbishop of Banterbury himself, James Haskell.

Left out of this squad – correctly – on grounds of form, it’s looking a long way back to the international side and a remarkable fall for someone who was good enough to be considered a Lions tourist in the summer (albeit he only came in to replace the injured B. Vunipola). A fine servant to English rugby and Jones has said the door is never shut, but this feels like the beginning of the end for Haskell.

What price for a backup No. 9, Eddie?
I can see it now. The week before the 2019 World Cup is due to kick off, Ben Youngs and Danny Care go down crocked. The only other scrum half Jones has capped as England coach was Jack Maunder, the young Exeter livewire who would otherwise have been playing for the U20s in Georgia, and he only got two minutes at the end of the first Test against Argentina in the summer, playing his part in England’s dramatic late victory.

Otherwise it has been a diet of Youngs and Care, Care and Youngs. Both are fine players and there is little doubt they’re the premier No.9s in England, but the lack of depth blooded behind them is startling, unless Eddie’s thinking of sending for Richard Wigglesworth when the World Cup rolls around.

This autumn would have been an excellent opportunity to involve a player like Dan Robson, bashing at the door for a couple of years now, or to start grooming Maunder, or another exciting player like Ben Vellacott at Gloucester or Ben Spencer at Saracens, properly. Instead, it’s yet another series that will go by with no development in the depth of a key position.

(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

And what about fullback, too?
Alongside scrum half, fullback is the position that has had the least attention paid to in Jones’ tenure. At least at No.9 Youngs and Care have both been in good form. Mike Brown at the back though, has been up and down for a player supposedly all about consistency, and with the only other player to have started a game at No.15 for Eddie, Alex Goode, now on the outer, it’s a position that’s crying out for more depth to be developed before the Japan jamboree in two years’ time.

In fairness, a couple of things mitigate this: Brown seemed to rediscover his attacking spark in the second Test against Argentina in the summer and took that into the Premiership with Harlequins, and it seems that the other options for fullback are to be found already in and around the squad.

Eddie has made noises about wanting to see all of Daly, Jack Nowell and Anthony Watson in the No.15 shirt at some point. This autumn may be the time to test one of Daly or Watson out.

Clutch juncture
Two years out from the World Cup then, and there are still plenty of questions to answer. Australia’s win over New Zealand also adds spice to an autumn schedule that was lacking it, and all of a sudden it’s gone from feeling relatively low-key to feeling very important indeed.

This is a crucial juncture in Eddie Jones’ tenure as England coach, with many of his established favourites now fighting for their rugby futures. Should be good…

England’s autumn schedule
England vs. Argentina, November 11
England vs. Australia, November 18
England vs. Samoa, November 25