All being well, on Saturday night Henry Arundell has another excellent opportunity to impress the England head coach, Steve Borthwick. Bath’s opponents, Munster, are one of the great European sides. With Jack Crowley manipulating matters from fly half for the Irish team, this Champions Cup match should have sufficient tension to test potential Test players.
Last Sunday Saracens, via the boot of Owen Farrell and the extraordinary athleticism of Noah Caluori, attempted to expose any weaknesses in Arundell’s aerial game. “Attempted” is the key word. The 23-year-old Bath wing handled Saracens’ combination of the veteran and rookie with a solid display of technical know-how and his own brand of explosive jumping ability. Munster will have watched Arundell closely. Crowley may wish to vary the kick-pass option a little more than Saracens, who kicked as if they could not believe that Arundell would handle the heat.
Arundell beats Caluori to a high ball in Bath’s win over Saracens last weekend
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Handling high balls is supposed to be one of the chinks in Arundell’s armour. The manner in which he defused Saracens and their cross-kicks was more eye-opening than the try he scored. After all, who could possibly be surprised at the left wing sprinting three quarters of the length of the pitch for a try? This score, his sixth already in the Gallagher Prem this season, was routine. There is not a quicker straight-line sprinter in the English game. Once he had made a clean intercept it was a try; end of story. The TV directors cannot get enough of those piston-pumping legs of his but the endless replays showed us nothing but the inevitable.
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The only intriguing moment was the decision to step in (or not, as was his option). Had the pass outflanked him, Saracens would have scored. It was a solid decision. One expected of an international but there have been questions asked about his defensive decision-making.
In his England Under-20 infancy he was an out-and-out full back. The number of length-of-field tries you can watch online is astonishing. He was a full back when he broke through into London Irish colours.
Against Toulon in a Challenge Cup match, in the French side’s fabulously hostile home ground, he received a pass a couple of metres from the Irish tryline and weaved his way past six defenders, using sheer speed, stepping, changes of pace and dummies to score one of the most memorable tries I have ever seen. The ball was tucked under his right arm all the way. The boy made the Frenchmen look like children.
Months later Eddie Jones took him on tour to Australia and with Arundell’s first touch, he blasted through two Wallaby tacklers and checked and stepped around the last line of cover. His first touch in Test rugby, his first try. But the man who gave him the pass was Freddie Steward. He remained on the field as England’s full back; Arundell was being transformed into a wing.
Despite Arundell’s five-try haul against Chile at the 2023 World Cup, he struggled against superior South American opposition and was substituted early in the third-place play-off game against Argentina. It has taken a return to Bath from Racing 92 for Arundell to rediscover that unique blend of pace and gear change, utilising it from the wing.
Against Fiji he scored with his first (and was it only?) touch of the November internationals. That raw pace. It is a point of difference. None of the England wings are slouches but they are not in his class. However, they are loaded with plenty of other virtues: strength, speed and aerial virtuosity.
The question needs to be raised. Should England consider him as a full back, first and foremost? He used to pick incredible lines from full back. There is something of the imperious Will Jordan in his game. There is something of the same background between Jordan — the deadliest finisher of his, or any, age — and the Bath back-three man. Yes, let’s drop the wing/full back differential. Back three will do.
Jordan was a wonderful full back at age grade who found his way into the All Blacks team as a wing before journeying back to his favoured old position. Unlike Arundell in 2023, New Zealand converted him into a complete operator. England did not bother with attack. It was kick, kick, kick.
Isolated on the touchline, Arundell did not know how to chase, did not know how to switch from the wide channels to his once-familiar position of full back. Of the two potential geniuses, one of them flourished, the other was frozen out of the game. England, with the coach Lee Blackett adding intellect to their offensive game, should be pushing the Bath wing into contention as a full back, à la Jordan, who is now equally adept in either position.
Borthwick’s side have a variety of contenders on the wing. At full back there are only two viable options. Steward has improved in attack but is no longer invulnerable in the air and is prone to being badly positioned in defence. This may explain the numerous one-on-one missed tackles. He is brave but inflexible. The other option is George Furbank. Northampton’s captain has suffered his share of injuries but there have been glimpses of true international potential as a full back with the vision of a fly half; in victory against Ireland in the 2024 Six Nations he was superb.
Whether he has quite the physique and physical attributes is the concern. But there is no doubt, full back is not overflowing with contenders, whereas England are loaded with the bulk Borthwick likes out wide. Can Arundell become the Jordan of England while playing wing for his club on a regular basis? It is an issue, and with Santiago Carreras and the dependable Tom de Glanville available, the West Country side have no need to make a switch.
Jordan got into the All Blacks team as a wing before journeying back to his former position as a full back
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Yet Arundell grew up as a full back. It was as a converted wing that he struggled to impose himself. Defensively, it is not straightforward to move from wing to full back. When to rush and when to buy time. In attack, full backs and wings share the same space into which they can destroy broken-field defences. An England back three of Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman (or Tom Roebuck) and Arundell gives Borthwick a balance for both kicking and passing, and an edge as potentially coruscating as any in world rugby.
Had England a Jordan at full back, that may just complete them. In Arundell they possess their own equivalent. Be bold, Borthers, be bold.