England squad update: Harry Randall among four players released

Steve Borthwick has cut four players from his Guinness Six Nations squad for next Saturday’s round three match in Scotland, releasing them for A team duty on Sunday versus Portugal in Leicester.

The England head coach had confirmed that a squad of 36 on Sunday evening would meet for two days of senior team training at Pennyhill Park, including Harry Randall for the injured No9 Alex Mitchell and the fit-again midfielder Ollie Lawrence at the expense of his uncapped Bath teammate Will Muir.

However, while Lawrence has been kept on ahead of Thursday's team announcement for the championship game in Edinburgh, Randall’s stay at Pennyhill was short-lived.

He will now reroute to George Skivington’s A team at Loughborough University ahead of England’s first match at that level since the 2016 Saxons tour to South Africa.

The decision means that Danny Care and Ben Spencer will be the two scrum-halves named in Borthwick's match day 23 to face Scotland following the knee injury suffered by the first-choice Mitchell.

Also joining Randall in the switch from Pennyhill to Loughborough will be Charlie Ewels, Joe Heyes and Max Ojomoh, as they have also been released for A team duty following first-team training.

Randall had originally been named in the squad of 27 last Thursday for the A game, but the emergence of Mitchell's injury saw the Bristol No9 start his week with Borthwick's first-team squad.

The further addition to the A squad of the already Borthwick-omitted Muir will increase the number of players Skivington now has with him for the Mattioli Woods Welford Road fixture to 31.