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England bring in new hooker Singleton for Boks tour
By Nathaniel Cope
After Schalk Brits' surprise call-up to the Springboks squad, England themselves have made an addition to their squad at hooker.
Worcester Warriors' Jack Singleton will join Eddie Jones' squad on Monday as England’s third hooker to cover Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Singleton is called up as a precaution after the Exeter man experienced hamstring tightness following the first Test in Johannesburg.
England lost the first Test 42-39 and the next match takes place in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
England are on a four-Test losing run, five matches if you include their defeat to the Barbarians.
Singleton started for England in their 63-45 defeat to the Baa-Baas at Twickenham, but is yet to earn a full Test cap. He also toured with Eddie Jones' side to Argentina last summer.
World Cup winning head coach Clive Woodward told the BBC on Sunday that 2018 had been a "horror show".
Meanwhile the new World Rugby rankings were released on Monday and it’s not good news for England.
Eddie Jones’ stated goal for the England was to be the number one Test side by the time the 2019 World Cup came along, instead they’ve dropped to fourth, for the first time in two years.
Things looked promising when England raced to an early 24-3 lead in Johannesburg against the Springboks, but they ended up losing 42-39 to slip to their fourth Test defeat in a row (the loss to the Barbarians is not counted).
Australia are the team to leapfrog England, into third following their 18-9 win over Grand Slam champions Ireland, who remain in second despite the defeat in Brisbane.
And England will have to look over their shoulders as Wales are breathing down their necks too, a win of greater than 20-10 over Argentina in San Juan would have seen Warren Gatland’s side go ahead of England, but instead they trail by a mere six-hundredths of a point.
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Latest Comments
Disagree.
The challenge for the All Blacks now that they have 7 of 8 starting forwards locked in and all but one bench forward (only one loose forward and bench loosie to settle on) is to sort out the starting backline as only 9 Roigard, 12 J. Barrett, 11 Clarke and 15 Jordan had good to outstanding seasons in 2024. All the other backs were inconsistent or poor and question marks going into 2025.
Go to commentshe should not be playing 12. He should be playing 10 and team managers should stop playing players out of position to accommodate libbok.
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