People are probably not going to like this suggestion, but been a lot of complaints about Ward due to his injury record. So what about Liam Sutcliffe? Consistently chosen in the squad, doesn’t get many injuries, captained the academy and England academy, very popular with the team. It’s likely he will nail down a second row / loose position now with the Merrin news.
Sutcliffe FFS for mine he shouldn't make the 17 next year unless there is injuries.
I’d probably give it to one of our overseas players Rhyse Martin, Rob Lui or Ava Seumanufagai. Stevie Ward needs to focus on his own fitness and health.
Don’t think it’s that important leader will lead regardless of the title given. Giving capt to Kev improves him but we had lots of leaders and voices in that team, who weren’t captain but people followed. The greater problem is I don’t see many of them in the current team.