A captain leads but is not always a leading player. Eddie Jones attracted scorn when he suggested some players were poor at club level but outstanding on the international field and vice versa, but history suggests he had a point.
Jones was explaining why he intended to retain Dylan Hartley as his captain despite the hooker’s lack of form for Northampton and the perceived greater individual qualities offered by Saracens’ Jamie George. If his choice of language was suspect – anyone who was a poor club player would not stay in the first team for long – it was not difficult to understand where he was coming from.
Would Gareth Edwards have been voted rugby’s greatest player had the Wales selectors judged the scrum-half on his form for Cardiff, a club where he paced himself, only once in 12 years making 20 appearances in a season? His half-back partner Barry John played at a consistently high level in blue and black and in red but Edwards, plagued by suspect hamstrings and more combative than John, largely held himself back for the big stage.
This time last year, there was a captaincy debate in Wales. There was a strong feeling that Sam Warburton was not playing well enough for Cardiff Blues to keep Justin Tipuric out of the side never mind remain their leader. The flanker returned to the ranks but in the summer became only the second British & Irish Lions captain not to be part of a losing series in New Zealand.
Warburton was on the bench for the first Test when again there was a clamour that he did not merit his place in the team. It was the only match of the three against the All Blacks that the Lions lost and, on reflection, watching him play in the final two matches when, despite being hampered by a persistent injury, he showed he was a player capable of rising to a majestic high, his overall form for the Blues held little relevance, a way of keeping match fit.
The captain as swashbuckler is a seductive image. Steve Smith has just led Australia to an emphatic Ashes victory, the leading run scorer in the series with a presence at the crease that was almost Bradmanesque, but when England made Ian Botham captain he neither inspired others nor himself. His was a singular talent wrapped in the force of his personality and his heroics in the 1981 Ashes came after he had resigned as captain.
Jones’s choice of Hartley as captain two years ago was controversial. The hooker’s poor disciplinary record, which had been the factor in his omission from the 2015 World Cup squad as he was serving a ban at the start of the tournament, prompted a surprised reaction to the appointment, but Hartley was also a player who, while having a mastery of the basics, rarely stood out.
Jones was not looking for an all‑conquering hero but someone who could help mould and solidify a team who twisted out of shape. Hartley was not scarred by the World Cup failure and Jones saw in him a classlessness that closed divides, treating hotel staff no differently from the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive, looking straight in front rather than up or down.
Jones has continually had to defend his appointment of Hartley, despite England’s record under him of 22 victories in 23 Tests, and has wearied of it, questioners lighting a shortening fuse. The coach has reached the point where he would like to feel he could leave out Hartley and not disturb the side’s equilibrium.
He will be frustrated that, less than two years out from the World Cup he covets, his team are not there yet. While it is easy to compare the statistics of George and Hartley and conclude they make a compelling case for the inclusion of the former, something the Lions decided in the summer although with Warburton in charge they had no need for Hartley as captain, leadership has more than a trace of the imperceptible.
Jones is able to view his players in the round, assessing their overall contribution, not just how they perform in matches and front up to the media. Much is hidden from public glare and scrutiny: players and coaches are seen for only a small portion of the time they are together, which makes the full role played by a captain, and his potential successors, very difficult to assess.
There will come a time when Hartley is dropped, unless he retires from international rugby first. The question is whether it happens under Jones’s watch. So far, he has remained loyal to his leading players, ones he inherited from Stuart Lancaster in the main, but as the World Cup draws closer forgiveness will start to snap.
Jones will be ruthless when he needs to be, as Warren Gatland has been in his 10 years in charge of Wales, not afraid to abruptly end the Test careers of those who have served him well, such as Martyn Williams, Adam Jones and Mike Phillips. He dropped his first captain, Ryan Jones, in a public manner after a home draw against Fiji.
Gatland is fired by today rather than yesterday and Jones will be the same. One of his lieutenants is a former England captain, Steve Borthwick, whose appointment in the Martin Johnson era was not rapturously received outside the squad. Borthwick was not one to fret about public relations, merely the next match, and Johnson eventually replaced him.
Would the 2011 World Cup campaign have collapsed off the field had Borthwick remained? Perhaps, but his time in charge offered proof that a captain is about more than playing form. Jones will gauge the opinion of others, not least his senior players, on whether Hartley remaining in the team meets with approval.
As long as England are winning, Jones is able to contain the issue but what he needs to see this year is more players showing leadership so he can consider a handover to men such as Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola, knowing they will be supported from below. Until that moment arises, the likes of Hartley, Mike Brown and James Haskell will remain in place.
• This is an extract taken from the Guardian’s weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
