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England player watch: Bristol's Harry Randall vs Bath's Ben Spencer
By Liam Heagney
Saturday was supposed to be a triumphant afternoon for Bath skipper Ben Spencer. The Gallagher Premiership derby versus Bristol heralded his 100th appearance for the club since his pandemic switch from Saracens in the summer of 2020, but the milestone wasn’t celebrated with a win.
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It started with razzamatazz. The scrum-half was allowed to run onto The Rec with his children before the team eventually followed out to fireworks and a tifo-style ‘Bath’ display in one of the stands.
Then when play got started, Spencer’s first box-kick was a noisy winner, its considerable hang-time enabling the Bath runners to gobble up the Bristol catcher and dump him into touch. But that was as giddy as the day got for the 32-year-old, though.
Amid doubts over the availability of the neck-affected Alex Mitchell for the upcoming Autumn Nations Series, Spencer clashing with Bears’ Harry Randall promised to be quite the head-to-head heading into Monday’s three-day England camp.
Spencer was capped off the bench in both matches versus New Zealand in July, seemingly getting one up on Randall whose tour consisted of a run off the bench a few weeks earlier against Japan in Tokyo.
Having also featured as a Six Nations sub away to Scotland earlier in the year, it appeared that the 2019 Rugby World Cup replacement – his last cap before 2024 – had best filled the back-up void left by the retired Danny Care.
With Borthwick favourite Mitchell now laid up, Saturday’s script was for the long lycra-sleeved Spencer to produce a show of force to suggest he would be a worthy of an England starter versus the All Blacks on November 2. Instead, the short-sleeved, socks around the ankles Randall – and Bristol – stole his thunder with a 36-26 win.
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Randall himself had recently ended a long spell in the international wilderness, his Tokyo cap his first since starting in three of his four appearances in the 2022 Six Nations with Eddie Jones was still the boss man.
Knowing there is an England starting shirt potentially up for grabs in four weeks, he comfortably had the better of it versus Spencer, particularly adding tempo to head off the second-half Bath recovery and ensure it was Bears’ derby joy.
Whereas Spencer kicked more from the hand in play (7-3), Randall made more carries (7-1) and effected a few extra tackles (8-6). He gave the assist pass for Santiago Grondona’s second try, and was also the vocal hands-on-shorts conductor ensuring the head-down-and-mauling Gabriel Oghre was driven in the right direction for the result-settling 63rd minute try.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, mind. Randall was clutching at air on 12 minutes, unable to cover across sufficiently after he box-kicked to halfway. Not a hand was laid on the counter-attacking Sam Harris, who galloped all the way back to score.
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He can’t have been pleased either by how Thomas du Toit reacted to steal floor ball that should have been Randall’s to take away at a 33rd-minute ruck just metres short of the line. Nevertheless, he was still comfortably the better No9 overall on show and will now arrive in England camp with a pep in his step looking to impress Borthwick.
Of course, this contest for the Test jersey in Mitchell’s potential absence could yet be skewed. Jack van Poortvliet had been Borthwick’s chosen one until serious injury wrecked his Rugby World Cup warm-up last year, paving the way for the originally unwanted Mitchell to arrive in from the wilderness and become first-choice ahead of Care and Ben Youngs.
Derby delight as @BristolBears secure an away-day victory! ?
A recap of the action ? pic.twitter.com/lGoRVSByZw
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 5, 2024
The Leicester player is now back up to speed and is the third scrum-half named in the England training squad. Despite this recall, Bristol boss Pat Lam believes it’s Randall’s time to shine. Quick, quick, quick is the reason. “The improvements in England in the sense of we all talk of the way they play, actually that is where Harry comes into it,” he said after the dust had settled on Bristol’s 10-point, five-tries-to-four away day win.
“I have a huge demand on our nines, they have to be the fittest on the park. The four nines we have, (Kieran) Marmion, (Sam) Wolstenholme and Sam Edwards, in the bronco, Marmion almost broke the world record in that and the others aren’t far behind.
“And Randall is probably about 27 seconds behind that, which is an improvement, but in the context he is faster than the other number nines. And why do I want that? The nines are huge in how I want to play, they have got to get speed of ball, they have got to get around the pitch – which suits exactly what Steve is looking for.
“The thing that I enjoyed about it is, one of the feedbacks from Steve for Harry is that he wanted the nines to be quicker and he has now seen he is one of the quickest.”
How might that feed into the upcoming England selection for a series that starts on November 2 at home to New Zealand? “It all depends on the way that you want to play,” reckoned Lam. “100 per cent I think Ben Spencer is a really good player and he is also one of the best kickers of the ball. In the teams he plays they tend to kick more.
“Harry can kick but his strength is his speed, his sniping, his ability to play guys in, put a defence under pressure. He has been doing that my whole time here which is why when I first saw him playing for Hartpury in my first year in the Championship and he almost beat us, I was, ‘Who is that kid?’ because of his speed of ball, the threat that he was, that is sort of nines that I like.
“That is why I brought Marmion here, he was the same sort of strength with us at Connacht, and so it all depends on what they [England] are looking for. To me, if they want a like-for-like for Mitchell if he is out, it’s certainly Harry but I understand if you want to kick a bit more. I still believe Harry can do it but Ben is probably the best one in that sense.”
This improved Randall slickness, can it be quantified? “I won’t give you exact numbers but I know the markers that they have is quick. It’s not just about the speed of pass, it’s about how quickly you get to it and use the ball and that’s where Harry is very strong.”
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Spencer’s leadership is obvious – he is the Bath captain, after all – but Randall is no slouch in this department either. Just look at his cajoling and steering when it came to directing Oghre to the try line better than any Google map could.
“That’s the biggest thing for him, it’s his leadership as well. He is one of the key leaders of the group,” explained Lam, a recognition added to with Oghre praising Randall’s earful guidance in helping the fourth try to get scored.
“Harry is a livewire. He has been showing that for a long time. I’m really happy that he got his opportunity on the summer tour to play and he has been put back in the squad. He just keeps bringing what he brings and I hope he gets another chance to show that.”
This jostling for England places steps up from Monday. It promises to be an intriguing contest.
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Randall put his case forward yesterday. He was much more lively than Spencer which was to be expected but his kicking was really good too. Without doubt he should be in the 23, whether he should start or not is debatable given England's propensity for box kicking... But I still believe JVP's service is too slow for international rugby, I don't think he should be in the squad, he limits us to playing one dimensional rugby while all the top teams are boasting much quicker ruck speed and recycle the ball before defenses can set. Mitchell has shown the difference a sharp 9 gives you, we shouldn't be looking at the likes of a JVP, it's a step backwards.
The negativity around JVP is so undeserved. He was brought into the team as a really young guy, played really well, and them was used by the media as a scapegoat for all of England's issues.
His service is easily fast enough, and his kicking is world class.