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Manu Tuilagi in line for first Six Nations start in six years
Eddie Jones will be force to find a new centre pairing after Ben Te’o has been left out of England’s squad following an injury concern.
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Te’o suffered a suspected side strain at training on Monday, opening the door for Manu Tuilagi to make his first Six nations start for England in six years.
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Tuilagi himself has battled multiple injuries for the better part of a decade, suffering a torn pectoral muscle twice, four groin injuries, a fractured cheekbone, three knee injuries and three hamstring injuries since late 2011.
The 27-year-old spoke recently how his injury problems motivated him to get healthy, as well as taking greater care of his body in preparations.
“I’ve had the ‘Manu’s injury prone’ stuff and it does bother you, but it’s also motivation to stay fit. I take a lot of time before every session to make sure I’m ready, which I didn’t used to do. I get there 30 minutes early and afterwards I do the ice baths, the recovery, the massages,” he told The Times.
Tuilgai believes he is a better player than the one who dominated the All Blacks at Twickenham several years ago.
“My understanding of the game is better — 100 percent. Mentally, I am stronger than ever. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been injured so much or I just got older, but I want to get something from every single session.
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“Physically, I am nearly there,” he said.
“It’s not that anything is missing; it’s just the feeling in my body — I’m slow to warm up.”
Eddie Jones’ men visit Dublin on Saturday hoping to end Ireland’s hopes of a second successive Grand Slam in the first week of the tournament.
Each of the last five Six Nations titles have been won by either Ireland (3) or England (2), but whoever tastes defeat at the Aviva Stadium is likely to have an uphill climb to lift the trophy again in 2019.
Wasps flanker Brad Shields was also ruled out of the squad, as was Bath’s Joe Cokanasiga who is unavailable because of a knee injury, with Harlequins back row Jack Clifford having already been ruled out after taking a knock to the head.
Scrum-half Dan Robson could make his international debut after being included in the 25.
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“We have Brad Shields, Joe Cokanasiga and Ben Te’o who are not far away from where we want them to be but in a game of this magnitude we need everyone to be 100 per cent so they will stay with us and continue to rehab,” said scrum coach Neal Hatley. “The plan is to have them all fit for France.
“Ben suffered a small side strain in training, he is doing his rehab, is not far away, but as I say everyone needs to be fully fit.
“We have had people running in different positions so we are pretty good at that and we make sure we comprehensively cover all the different permutations of what could happen so it’s not like Ben is the only person who has run at 12 for us.”
Squad in full:
Forwards: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tom Curry, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Nathan Hughes, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Kyle Sinckler, Billy Vunipola, Mako Vunipola, Harry Williams, Mark Wilson.
Backs: Chris Ashton, Mike Brown, Elliot Daly, Owen Farrell (captain), George Ford, Jonny May, Jack Nowell, Dan Robson, Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs.
Rugby World Cup city guide – Oita:
Comments on RugbyPass
One that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
3 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
110 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
1 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
3 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
3 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
110 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
3 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
3 Go to commentsWell one thing about World Cup knock out rounds and Ireland is very clear: they won’t be getting ahead of themselves in ‘27! Because making it beyond the QF is well and truly ‘IN THEIR HEADS’ now…😉
110 Go to commentsHas this guy been dope tested? Sounds like a case of “roid rage”.
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