Wasps’ head coach Lee Blackett said his captain is ‘in the form of his career’ and can catch Warren Gatland’s eye for a call-up
In a manner entirely in keeping with his character, Joe Launchbury quietly re-established himself as a member of Eddie Jones’s England side during the autumn. He started all four Autumn Nations Cup matches to mark his longest run in the side for two and a half years and though he is too self-effacing to admit it, showed the kind of form that may finally earn a British & Irish Lions call-up at the third time of asking.
He did not catch the eye with the kind of interventions of his second-row partner Maro Itoje but he was no less integral to England’s unbeaten autumn and for all that Jones has spoken of a team in transition, his most recent side featured only two changes from the 2019 World Cup final with Launchbury’s re-emergence one of few notable differences.
