I understand the logic of McConnochie WRT to Nowells injury, but McConnochie was injured for almost as long as Nowell - think he was available for only one game before Nowell was fit again
That said: there really wasn't much behind him. Thorley (also on zero caps, but McConnochie has Olympics/big game experience), Ashton (ruled himself out due to his pregnant wife), Solomona (ruled out through injury) and Mike Brown (on the naughty step for scrapping or whatever)
I could easily be wrong, but wasn't he injured the week before the squad was announced, missed 2 warm up matches, had a set-back before the 3rd, and played the 4th, and been fit since?
I'd also add that the other controversial selection (Francis) was there in much the same way - to cover the existing injury to Slade.
As it pans out Slade recovered in around the time expected - was terrible on his return, and okay in his second - so just about in contention for the final.
Has Nowell been fit yet? Surely he was the one who should have been left at home.
I'd also point out, that we've been incredibly lucky with injuries. The only player who's picked up an injury and had to miss a match during the RWC is Heinz. All our other injury considerations have been minor enough to play through (May) or injuries we took out with us.
Despite all of this, I still say, that we should have left Francis and Nowell/McConnochie back home, and taken Spencer and Williams out there. Those guys were only there as squad filler to play the USA, or in case of 2 injuries in the same position - leaving us no cover on case of 1 injury in key positions - however little game time 3rd choice SHs tend to get in RWCs (I strongly suspect 5th choice wingers and 4th choice centres get equally little gametime - there's a maximum of 1 match where you'd want to play them; otherwise, they're sitting there waiting for an injury to even have a shot at the bench)
