Jeremy Guscott column

Former Bath, England & Lions centre

England manager Martin Johnson names his Elite Playing Squad (EPS) this Wednesday and after a disastrous autumn series there's much soul-searching to be done.

Does he stick with what's been tried or does he begin to make changes?

For me, his biggest headache remains in the centre. He has to sort out the combination that will work best against Italy in the opening Six Nations game on 7 February because Riki Flutey and Jamie Noon didn't gel in November.

A Clarke and Tait combination would be a step into the unknown for England

Noon wasn't used effectively. He is primarily a ball-carrier that should be used to get over the gain line, a target for the team to build momentum from.

During the autumn he tackled well but we didn't see enough of him running at pace and crashing into the opposition defensive line to create a target for his forwards.

Flutey hasn't found the form of last season, when he was at the centre of everything inventive that Wasps did.

It appears to me that whatever message attack coach Brian Smith is trying to get across isn't sinking in, as there isn't any cohesion or understanding between the two centres.

It's definitely time to rethink. England have a quick back three who are hungry for the ball, but they virtually starved during the autumn Tests because they received so few passes.

There are enough good quality English centres playing in the Premiership - Olly Barkley, Flutey, Noon, Mathew Tait, James Simpson-Daniel, Mike Tindall, Jon Clarke, Dan Hipkiss and Jordan Turner-Hall are all decent players.

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It appears the era of inside and outside centre has passed because the professional game seems to be about having ball-carriers, rather than one playmaker combined with a quick finisher who can read his inside centre's moves.

If you purely wanted ball-carriers in midfield, Johnson and Smith should look more at combinations like Turner-Hall/Tindall, or Clarke/Turner-Hall (or vice versa), or Clarke/Tindall.

Your game plan would be to use these guys to get you across the gain-line and then rely on the likes of Shane Geraghty/Toby Flood/Danny Cipriani - whoever is at fly-half - to use the quick ball generated to feed the classy back three (provided there are no forwards in the way!).

The old fashioned inside and outside centre style would bring the likes of Barkley/Simpson-Daniel, Clarke/Tait, Turner-Hall/Tait and Flood/Simpson-Daniel or Flood/Tindall into play.

These combinations give you more options in how you play the game in the backs.

We've been waiting far too long to see Mathew Tait making searing breaks on the outside

You can go direct with the bigger man standing at 12, or play him at 13 to give you a crash-ball option further out.

When you get quick ball you would then have an extra quick man alongside the back three.

With the quicker player at outside centre you can exploit a bigger, slower, defensive outside centre and when you get into phase play you have an extra quick man to beat the many forwards you see these days standing in the defensive line.

Whichever centre combination England choose, they must fit into the game plan rather than work as individuals.

My choice would be to go for a totally new combination of Clarke and Tait, the old fashioned bigger inside centre and the very quick outside centre.

We've been waiting far too long to see Tait making searing breaks on the outside, and playing with an inside centre who can take the ball up to link with the forwards or put his partner into space.

Wednesday's squad announcement will give us a bit more of an idea of England's intended direction, and whether they are any closer to finding the key that can unlock the back three.