Willi Heinz is showing that Eddie Jones made the right call at the
World Cup while there are encouraging signs at Welford Road
Willi Heinz was one of the more left-field selections in last year’s World Cup, called up by
England at the age of 32 as one of two scrum-halves in their squad. The promotion of the New Zealander, who qualified through a grandmother, annoyed Danny Care, who for three years had appeared to be bound for Japan. Judging by the performances of the pair over the weekend, Eddie Jones not only made the right call but may be reluctant to jettison Heinz, who is now 33. The biggest single reason Gloucester came from behind to defeat Bath was Heinz’s ability to react to what he saw rather than read from a script. Gloucester are a curious mix of a side: on the one hand they make basic mistakes and creak in the set pieces but on the other they have the ability to make much from little, the likes of Heinz, Danny Cipriani and Mark Atkinson loading the gun for Ollie Thorley, Louis-Rees Zammit, Jason Woodward and Jake Polledri to fire. They are the Premiership’s wild cards. Paul Rees