3 – Jake Kerr (Scotland)
Scotland has a bit of an issue with hookers, as usual suspects Fraser Brown and George Turner are both ruled out through injury. Leaving Townsend with no choice, he looked south to Kerr of Leicester Tigers, and by the looks of things, he’s not done too badly. Sure he’s depleted Edinburgh and Glasgow further by enlisting Dave Cherry and Grant Stewart respectively, because you’d be mad to give the Six Nations ago without a healthy choice of front row options, but with only one experienced player in the number 2 jersey, someone is going to have to step up, and my bet goes to Kerr.
4 – Ben Earl (England)
England need to consider having an experimental phase sooner rather than later. One that replicates the likes of their British and Irish counterparts wouldn’t hurt, and one name that should be right at the top of their list is the Saracen Ben Earl. The back row is a sticking point for England at the moment, but Earl has been outstanding and has been showing enough potential to earn himself a crisp white jersey. If England want to bolster their pack for more for the trickier encounters, and savour Brad Shields or Sam Underhill and others, then Earl would be a fantastic name to start off with in the pack.