Having had such a successful season since last year's World Cup disaster, extraordinary depth has begun to emerge in English rugby’s pool of talent. On 30th September, head coach Eddie Jones selected his 45-man Elite Player Squad (EPS) and also announced a provisional 37-man training squad for the Autumn Internationals against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia. The final squad for these matches will be named on 26th October. 

With the increasing intensity of modern-day rugby, there is newfound importance in having two or more top-class players available in every position. While this leaves coach Jones with numerous selection headaches at present, it should also leave England in a strong position come the next World Cup in 2019.

Centres

Not since 2003, the era of Will Greenwood and Mike Tindall, have England had a settled centre pairing. Countless partnerships were formed and disbanded under former head coach Stuart Lancaster alone (2012-2015), with 14 different centre pairings taking to the field, and selection issues often exacerbated by injuries.

Despite Owen Farrell and Jonathan Joseph’s recent run of games, the debate is far from over: the array of options is too large, and it is hard for Jones to ignore the fact that Farrell is widely seen as one of the world’s best fly-halves. Jones's EPS includes a plethora of possible options, with Joseph and Farrell picked alongside Elliot Daly, Manu Tuilagi, Henry Slade, Ben Te’o and England Under 20s starlet Joe Marchant.

The majority of these choices seem vintage Jones: as outside centres, Joseph, Daly and Marchant are very much in the same mould, while Farrell and Slade fit the ‘playmaker’ role at 12 which has featured in Jones’s preferred system so far.

Yet there seems no obvious space in the starting 15 for Manu Tuilagi, who has for so long been thought of as England’s greatest weapon and may have to settle for an impact substitute role.

And as if to exemplify England's strength in depth, omitted from this discussion are Luther Burrell (15 caps), Ollie Devoto, Sam Hill, Nick Tompkins and Sam James, all of whom have been in England or Saxons squads under Jones, while the world of club rugby is currently enjoying the very best of Billy Twelvetrees (19 caps), Kyle Eastmond (six caps) and Saracens's club captain Brad Barritt (26 caps) – there are centres in abundance. 

Wings

While there has not been quite the same dilemma over English wingers, Eddie Jones is also blessed in this department. The training squad features Anthony Watson, Jack Nowell, Marland Yarde and Semesa Rokoduguni, while other high-profile names miss out: the injured Jonny May, suspended Chris Ashton and Wasps's Christian Wade, who scored 6 tries in one match last season, will not be on the pitch.

Also knocking on the door are Gloucester's Charlie Sharples, who remains one of the fastest players in the Premiership, and Bath’s Matt Banahan (16 caps), who remains as destructive as ever and has already scored three tries this season.

Fly-Half

In (arguably) rugby's most important position, England are fortunate to have in George Ford and Owen Farrell two players hovering in and around the world-class level, both of whom are the leading contenders for the number 10 role. Farrell has been deployed predominantly at 12 by Jones so far and Ford – who seemed revitalised against Australia following a poor season – currently holds the shirt.

But Farrell's metronomic kicking ability may still come into play: after scoring 66 points and landing 23 of his 26 kicks Down Under, Jones described the Saracens man's kicking as “solar-system class”.

And outside that pair, there are plenty of others waiting in the wings for their shot. Slade could yet get a run at fly-half, while Saracens’s new fly-half, Alex Lozowski, has also made the wider squad after a blistering start to the season.

Former tabloid favourite Danny Cipriani and Freddy Burns will both feel aggrieved to miss out, having started the season so well at Wasps and Leicester respectively, and Harry Mallinder of Northampton, who captained the Under 20s to World Championship victory this summer, looks like a promising future prospect too.

In Review: England’s Summer of Rugby

Back Row

Down in Australia, Chris Robshaw and James Haskell put in the series of their lives, firmly cementing themselves as England’s first choices at flanker, while Billy Vunipola continues to develop into a world class number 8 and Jack Clifford seems a worthy deputy. 

But with Haskell and Clifford injured, the door has been opened to others: the marauding Nathan Hughes has been added to the squad alongside his Wasps teammate Sam Jones, with Leicester’s Mike Williams also among those players fighting it out for Haskell’s shirt.

Yet the list of potential back-rowers that could fit into the England team goes on: Sale's Josh Beaumont, Northampton's Teimana Harrison and Gloucester's Ben Morgan are all in the squad, as well as Under 20s starlet Will Evans.

Elsewhere in the Premiership, Saracens's Will Fraser, Northampton's Callum Clark and the explosive Wasp Guy Thompson have entered the fray, while the Ospreys's Sam Underhill is also developing a strong reputation.

In the Saxons, Exeter's Don Armand and Dave Ewers alongside Gloucester's Matt Kvesic could compete in the future, while former England stars including Tom Wood (42 caps), Tom Croft (41 caps) and Steffon Armitage (5 caps) could potentially stake their own claim for a spot. 

Second Row

Last season, George Kruis and Maro Itoje emerged as England’s powerhouse locks, pushing aside stalwarts Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes. There seem few who could challenge these four, though youngster Charlie Ewels and Dave Attwood (23 caps), both of Bath and the Saxons's successful tour of South Africa, could threaten to overturn the status quo in the future, alongside Leicester's Ed Slater and Wasps's James Gaskell. 

Hookers

Barring injuring, captain Dylan Hartley is the first name on the team sheet which will limit the opportunities for Jamie George, Tommy Taylor and Luke Cowan-Dickie, all of whom are in the 45-man squad, and all of whom have made impressive starts to the season, with Cowan-Dickie currently the joint top try-scorer. The England career of Leicester's club captain and former first-choice hooker Tom Youngs (28 caps) looks increasingly dead.