Adieu as England greats line up to play in France

A thrilling race to the finish will leave most Premiership fans rooted in the present this afternoon but for the nostalgics there are plenty of reasons to reminisce and remember glories of the past.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

There will come a time when the semi-final win over New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup is no longer used as a seminal reference point - proof of what a confident England side can be - but there is a case this weekend to dig out the DVD and press play, to revel in the misty-eyed memories and madness of a night when England overran the world champions.

For much of Eddie Jones's finest vintage are now bidding adieu. Today will mark the regular season farewells to a host of key figures in that side, from Owen Farrell and the Vunipolas at Saracens to Kyle Sinckler, Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes elsewhere, lured south by all that France has to offer.

While Farrell and Lawes are the headline names, it is the other quartet that should cause the greatest pangs of the past for England supporters. The Vunipola brothers, Sinckler and Tuilagi may have slipped into international obsolescence over the last 12 months but they were once England's four ball-carrying bastions, the solid spine with varied vertebrae that Jones powered up to transform into World Cup finalists.

Steve Borthwick is right to look beyond the group but their unique offerings will prove tough to replace - bruisers with ballhandling skills that allowed the evolution of a varied attack. "Few players change how their position is played," Saracens boss Mark McCall said this week. "But Mako's all-around skillset, rugby intelligence, and physicality made us, as coaches, rethink what's possible from a loosehead prop. And Billy for a while was the No 1 eight in the world. I think you just need to watch some of the film of his career to see [that]."