Rugby World Cup Stock Check: 325 days to go

With 325 days to go until the biggest tournament in rugby kicks-off in England, who enhanced their chances of featuring at Rugby World Cup 2015 over the weekend’s European action, and who did themselves no favours?

GOING UP

Maxime Mermoz
Toulon, France
For the first time in as long as most can remember, Mermoz is starting to look like the player he was hyped up to be when he burst onto the scene. All silky running and delicate hands, he’s thriving outside of a more play-making fly-half (mostly Matt Giteau but also, at the weekend, James O’Connor). Wesley Fofana is, of course, almost an insurmountable obstacle on his path to the French 12 berth, but at least France know they now have excellent back-up.

Henry Slade
Exeter Chiefs, England
Slade was added to the England squad at the weekend, and while training with the senior squad will be a great experience for him, there’s absolutely no reason he can’t push for his first cap this autumn – especially given Luther Burrell’s injury. Eastmond and Barritt will likely take the starting jerseys this autumn, and it’ll then be between him, Joseph and Twelvetrees for a potential bench spot. If his inexperience works against him, his form, which continued with a try-scoring appearance against Connacht at the weekend, certainly makes him a strong contender for some game time this autumn.

Samson Lee
Scarlets, Wales
In the post-Adam Jones era, there are a few tightheads in with a chance of making his XXL number three shirt their own, and in a solid scrummaging performance against the might of Marcos Ayerza, Samson Lee put himself towards the top of the list of potential replacements. There was nothing particularly flash about Lee’s performance, but then there was nothing particularly flash about the Scarlets’ win, either. It was exactly the type of performance they needed from him.

Camille Lopez
Clermont Auvergne, France
If it’s likely to be a two-way battle between Lopez and Remi Tales for the French starting fly-half jersey next month, there’s currently only one man winning the race. While Tales was playing out an ugly home loss to Leinster, Lopez was orchestrating a breathless back-line display, while also kicking accurately from the tee – something which can’t always be said of French number tens, given the propensity of clubs to have a scrum-half as a kicker.

GOING DOWN

Elliot Daly
Wasps, England
It just hasn’t quite clicked yet for Daly this season. His partnership with Alapati Leuia is a potentially breathtaking one, but again at the weekend they just looked like they were trying to force things a bit, and the end product wasn’t quite there. Frustrations boiled over in the second half and Daly conceded a petulant penalty for retaliation. Whether it’s that defences are aware of the danger he poses and are shutting him down better or not, there’s no doubt he’s not had the fastest start to the season.

Paddy Jackson
Ulster, Ireland
Not being included in the Ireland squad for the Autumn internationals leaves Jackson’s hopes of featuring at next year’s World Cup hanging by a thread. This weekend’s loss to Toulon for Ulster, for which the blame clearly can’t all be laid at his feet, will nonetheless not have helped. While Ians Keatley and Madigan are playing in winning teams, Jackson’s Ulster have just slumped to two defeats on the trot, which could also deny him the platform of the European Cup to showcase his talents to Joe Schmidt.

Leonardo Sarto, Dario Chistolini
Zebre, Italy
It should have been an immensely happy week for these two as they were part of the Zebre squad who won in Europe for the first time ever – but as it happens, both were dropped to the bench before the game. It has since emerged that the two, along with South African Andries Ferreira, have been banned pending a disciplinary hearing for something that happened over the weekend. For the Italian pair, it certainly jeopardises their chances of playing this November, and given neither are that established in the set-up, there’s no guarantee they’ll make it back in.

Dave Strettle
Saracens, England
Despite his try-scoring form being up there with the best in Europe right now, there was no place for Dave Strettle in Lancaster’s England squad for this autumn. The head coach said he was certainly under consideration, but it seems he still hasn’t done enough to force his hand and recall him from the international wilderness. Given the other options available to Lancaster, you feel like this autumn was probably Strettle’s last chance to get back into the squad and make a case for a World Cup spot. No matter how many more tries he scores this season now, that looks unlikely.

Who were you impressed with over the weekend and who do you think played poorly?

By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43