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Former Bristol captain Matt Salter dies aged 49
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England suffer brutal Tom Curry injury in warm-up before Italy
By Josh Raisey
Sam Underhill will start for England against Italy after Tom Curry injured himself in the warm-up of their Guinness Six Nations round four clash.
Underhill, who was originally named on the bench, will start in the British & Irish Lion’s place, with Chandler Cunningham-South coming onto the bench for his first appearance of the Championship.
Curry was seen being helped as he limped from the Stadio Olimpico field during England’s warm-up, forcing the last-minute change.
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The injury will see Guy Pepper, Underhill and Ben Earl rekindle the back-row triumvirate that functioned so well in the Quilter Nations Series and the opening match of the Six Nations, before stuttering against Scotland and being ripped up for the round three loss to Ireland.
After Curry and Henry Pollock started alongside Earl against Andy Farrell’s side, and were comprehensively outplayed, Steve Borthwick tinkered with his back-row trio again for the trip to Rome, with Curry originally scheduled to play alongside Pepper and Earl, who will earn his 50th cap.
Cunningham-South was tipped by many to come into the England squad after they severely lacked any physical edge up front against Ireland. Though he initially missed out, this is a call-up that may please large sections of the England fandom.
With England heading into the match on the back of two losses, this was nevertheless far from the build-up that Borthwick would have wanted.
Updated England XV: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Tommy Freeman, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Ben Spencer; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Alex Coles, 6 Guy Pepper, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Ben Earl.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Trevor Davison, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Henry Pollock, 21 Chandler Cunningham-South, 22 Jack van Poortvliet, 23 Marcus Smith.
