England name Six Nations team with 7 changes from Springboks win
Eddie Jones has named an England team for this Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener away to Scotland that shows seven changes from the XV that started the Autumn Nations Series finale win over South Africa at Twickenham eleven weeks ago. No8 Tom Curry will take over the captaincy in the absence of Courtney Lawes who had this responsibility on November 20 versus the Springboks.
Lawes has struggled to overcome a concussion suffered last month while on European duty for his club Northampton, while regular skipper Owen Farrell hasn’t played any rugby since the mid-series win over Australia and has since been ruled out of the entire championship following a second ankle operation.
Captain Curry is the only player from the starting back row last time out with England to be included for the trip to Edinburgh as Lewis Ludlam comes in for the unavailable Lawes and Sam Simommds replaces Sam Underhill, who has been having his own troubles with a concussion. It means Curry, the No8 versus the Boks, starts at openside.
Elsewhere in the pack, Nick Isiekwe takes over at second row for Jonny Hill, whose lower leg/high ankle stress fracture left him unavailable, while in the front row Ellis Genge and Luke Cowan Dickie come in for Bevan Rodd and Jamie Blamire.
There were also always going to change behind the scrum due to injuries. Max Malins comes in for the knee-troubled Jonny May with Elliot Daly at centre for Manu Tuilagi, the powerhouse who has yet to play for his club Sale since damaging a hamstring in the act of scoring for England against the Springboks. Daly starts at No13 with Henry Slade moving into No12. Meanwhile, Marchant switches wings to No11 to accommodate Malins at No14.
On the bench, there are recalls for Jack Nowell, who hasn’t been capped since October 2019, and George Ford, who has been out of favour since the Six Nations defeat to Ireland last March. Also included are Jamie George, Joe Marler, Will Stuart, Charlie Ewels, Alex Dombrandt and Harry Randall.
Jones said: “As the first game, this match is hugely important to both sides and we will both want to get off to a winning start. We have a good, young team but we understand the task ahead and we’ll be ready to go after it from the first kick. Tom Curry will captain the side for this game and has the respect of the team around him, in Owen and Courtney’s absence.
“He also has the support of the vice-captains and other leaders in the team such as Maro Itoje and Ben Youngs. We have prepared really well for this game. We’ve had a number of obstacles thrown at us, but we’ve overcome them as a more together group and we’re looking forward to getting started.”
ENGLAND (vs Scotland, Saturday)
15. Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 5 caps)
14. Max Malins (Saracens, 10 caps)
13. Elliot Daly (Saracens, 52 caps)
12. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 43 caps)
11. Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 7 caps)
10. Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 5 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 112 caps)
1. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 31 caps)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 31 caps)
3. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 47 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 51 caps)
5. Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 3 caps)
6. Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 10 caps)
7. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 36 caps) (C)
8. Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 9 caps)
FINISHERS
16. Jamie George (Saracens, 61 caps)
17. Joe Marler (Harlequins, 74 caps)
18. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 15 caps)
19. Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 26 caps)
20. Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 4 caps)
21. Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 2 caps)
22. George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 77 caps)
23. Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 34 caps)
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments