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England name team to take on France
By Online Editors
England men’s head coach Eddie Jones has named his team to face France in their second Guinness Six Nations match on Sunday 10 February at Twickenham Stadium.
Jones has made two changes to the starting XV that beat Ireland last weekend with Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) selected in the second row following the injury to Maro Itoje (Saracens) in Dublin.
Chris Ashton (Sale Sharks) is named on the right wing in place of Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs) who will be among the finishers on Sunday. It will be Ashton’s first start in the Six Nations since 2013.
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Joe Launchbury (Wasps) and Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs) are included as finishers for the first time this tournament.
Eddie Jones said: “After the Ireland game we have had to refocus and reset. Players have been very good and certainly by Sunday we’ll be at our best.
“The French are always an interesting side to play against. They are full of talent, they have a lot of unpredictability so it’s hard to prepare tactically against them so we have had a real focus on ourselves.
“It is unfortunate Maro is injured but he has been rehabbing well so we are hopeful he will be back earlier than maybe first predicted. We have got great depth in the squad so Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes will fill his shoes very well.
“We have gone for Chris Ashton on the wing; we think he might sneak us a try early in the game. Jack Nowell was brilliant against Ireland and he’ll play a significant role for us off the bench.
“We can’t wait to play in front of our supporters, I’m sure they will be buoyant by the first round results and we promise we will play a better game on Sunday.”
England have won nine of the last 12 Six Nations games against France with the Les Bleus only having managed one win at Twickenham in the Six Nations era back in 2005.
England starting XV (555 caps)
15 Elliot Daly (Wasps, 26 caps)
14 Chris Ashton (Sale Sharks, 43 caps)
13 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 18 caps)
12 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 28 caps)
11 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 41 caps)
10 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 66 caps) (c)
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 81 caps)
1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 52 caps)
2 Jamie George (Saracens, 33 caps)
3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 18 caps)
4 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 69 caps)
5 George Kruis (Saracens, 28 caps)
6 Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons, 9 caps)
7 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 6 caps)
8 Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 37 caps)
Finishers (249 caps)
16 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 8 caps)
17 Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs, 4 caps)
18 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 82 caps)
19 Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 54 caps)
20 Nathan Hughes (Wasps, 19 caps)
21 Dan Robson (Wasps, uncapped)
22 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 52 caps)
23 Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 30 caps)
Watch: England train ahead of France game
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I think there's a lot of truth to that. Improved fitness, which is something that can be improved at least, would help make for better decision-making in the latter stages of the game. I also feel though that we just haven't developed enough depth yet, as they allude to. That should be the focus looking ahead. Considering how well England have done at age-grade level in recent years, we can clearly see the talent is there. It's just a case of stepping up to senior level. I do believe that Conor O'Shea has implemented a few things that will pay off. How the EPS contracts play out will be interesting and you would think would help get more out of the players, so, unlike the media storm out there, I'm not overly concerned with England at the moment. I'm more concerned with Wales. We need to be giving them encouragement and helping where we can there. At the end of the day international rugby needs to be as tight, exciting and competitive as possible if the game is to develop and spread worldwide, which it really hasn't done that well over the decades, until maybe more recently.
Go to commentsPSDT for me. I keep seeing Ox getting a lot of support in the various threads, I’m not going to pretend to know enough about font row sorcery to dispute it.
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