Curtis Langdon is the answer to England’s hooker depth problems

Rarely in the recent past have England’s hooker stocks been more depleted. With the captain, Jamie George, as first choice and Theo Dan, his understudy at Saracens, the preferred bench man in the Six Nations, the front-line duo are respectable and balanced. Beneath them, however, there has been cause for concern.

Since the 2019 World Cup final defeat to South Africa, only five people have worn England’s No 2 jersey. Four of the quintet do not cumulatively have even half as many starts as the remainder, George, who, at 33, is not going to be around forever. The back-up to George and Dan at last year’s World Cup was Jack Walker but he was trusted with only a bench appearance against Chile at rugby’s showpiece and has not featured in a white jersey since, not even making the Harlequins one his own, either.

It was Luke Cowan-Dickie who displaced Walker as the third-choice hooker during the Six Nations but that is not a long-term solution. Cowan-Dickie was a world-class hooker in his prime, with an undeniably higher ceiling than George, but both in terms of form and fitness the Sale forward is past his prime. That is not to say that he is not a worthwhile option for the Sharks at Premiership level, however.

All that means is that, through whichever prism it is viewed, there is a third hooker spot up for grabs. There are candidates - the likes of Walker, Cowan-Dickie, Newcastle’s Jamie Blamire and Bath’s Tom Dunn, who have had dalliances - but no one has made the shirt their own, no one has convinced, and England need three top-quality No 2s if they are going to compete at the top table of Test rugby.

So, where should Steve Borthwick turn? Enter Curtis Langdon, one of the quartet to have earnt a start at hooker since 2019. Intrepid off the pitch as well as on it, Langdon has passed through the doors of Sale, Worcester and, when the Warriors went pop, Montpellier, before finding his feet at high-flying Northampton. Langdon was capped by Borthwick’s predecessor, Eddie Jones, in the 2021 summer internationals against the USA and Canada but has not featured in an England squad since - not under Jones, nor Borthwick. This season, however, Langdon has been a revelation.

The hooker has played an integral part in Northampton’s dashing charge to the top of the Premiership and - one mistimed tackle against Munster aside - the Saints’ run to the Champions Cup semi-finals. The caveat is that there always have and always will be players who have shone for their clubs but cannot translate such excellence to the Test arena but Langdon looks a different beast to the 2021 debutant. He deserves another shot – and he wants one.

“I’d be lying if I said [England] wasn’t [a goal],” said Langdon. “I don’t want just two appearances for England against the USA and Canada. I want to play as much as I can. If I got that opportunity, it would be brilliant. But I’m just controlling the controllables at the moment and hopefully that gives me more opportunities.

“There have been little conversations [with the coaches]. There was a bit of a conversation before the Six Nations. I speak to Tom Harrison [England scrum coach] now and again; he comes into the club to catch up with some of the forwards in the squad. We talk scrums. Not a great deal of chat but they understand that it’s coming into the business end of the season here at the club – so a lot of focus has gone on that.”

If afforded another opportunity, whether Langdon takes it remains to be seen but, statistically, his case is compelling. Admittedly, the Saint has been ubiquitous in this season’s Premiership due to his lack of England involvement but among the league’s hookers there is barely an Opta chart that Langdon does not top. Most tries, most carries, most line breaks, most defenders beaten, most offloads - all Langdon. The hooker, at personal-best level with his sprinting, has embodied Saints’ adventurous, audacious and skilful approach but the nuts and bolts of his game have been as sharp as any other No 2 shooter in the league, too.

“Curt’s been brilliant,” said Phil Dowson, Northampton’s director of rugby. “A very talented sportsman. In the loose, his footwork and ability to get the ball away, but he’s having more of a focus – particularly with Jim Henry, our throwing coach, and Matt Ferguson, our scrum coach – on being a set-piece leader, too. Not just relying on his raw ability in the loose.”

Langdon possesses the third-best tackle success rate of the league’s hookers - above, even, the great Puma Julián Montoya - the third most tackles, and the third-most rucks hit. Northampton’s line-out is currently operating at just shy of 90 per cent, the second best in the league. The hooker is always blamed when the line-out goes wrong and never blamed when it goes right, which is far too simplistic and reductive, but the inescapable fact is that Langdon is part of the second-best operation in the league.

Despite his desire to pop up and excel in open spaces, Langdon is no show pony. He takes to the lesser-seen, less-glamorous tasks as willingly as he might spot a gap and burst through it. He is as balanced a hooker as the Premiership possesses right now. Indeed, it was not Langdon’s skills and style which attracted Northampton to him. For Sam Vesty, Northampton’s head coach and the mastermind of the Saints’ free-spirited, heads-up modus operandi, it was Langdon’s “toughness”; for Dowson, the “mad as a box of frogs” Langdon has earnt every success through graft.

“The most important thing we picked him on was him being a tough character - his toughness,” Vesty told Telegraph Sport. “You need some doers - some glue - alongside athletes.

“But he’s also a fantastic heads-up rugby player. He wants to work hard, he’s a good guy and he’s tough. And he can do the next bit [of identifying and playing into space].”

Dowson added: “He’s mad – mad as a box of frogs, but he listens and he gets on with it. He’s the butt of many jokes in the squad. He’s got good energy. He and Sam Matavesi are both real energy-givers in the group. So they put themselves front and centre and attract a lot of attention and derision from the boys. He and Sam drive a real positive energy by being super competitive and getting stuck into everything.”

Should Langdon continue in this vein, the hooker will not only be getting stuck into the business end of the season for Northampton, but in New Zealand, too.