1
'Ireland are the best side in the world' - Jones
By Christopher Devine
"Ireland are the best side in the world" - that's according to England head coach Eddie Jones, who revealed his 35-man England Six Nations squad this morning.
England open their campaign in Dublin on February 2 against an Ireland side who completed the Grand Slam at Twickenham last year.
"Ireland are the best side in the world," Jones added. "They are a very well coached and drilled side and have particular things they do well in the game.
"To beat Ireland, we need to compete brutally in all the contest areas of the game.
Jones left out co-captain Dylan Hartley has been left out of England's training squad for the game in Dublin.
Owen Farrell will therefore skipper the team, while head coach Eddie Jones has included four uncapped players in the squad - OIlie Thorley, Dan Robson, Jack Singleton and Ben Earl.
England are boosted by the return of Billy Vunipola, Joe Launchbury, Mako Vunipola and Ellis Genge for the first time since last year's tour of South Africa, while Dan Cole, Jack Clifford and Ollie Devoto are also included after long absences.
"Unfortunately, Dylan won’t be available for the Ireland game so we won't take him to Portugal [for a training camp] but we are hopeful he will be back later in the championship," explained Jones.
"Owen will be captain by himself and he will certainly have great support from a number of senior players."
"We are very happy with the squad and have a number of players who have come back from long-term injury.
"We are looking forward to getting across to Portugal and having a good 10-day preparation for the Ireland game."
England squad:
Forwards: Jack Clifford, Dan Cole, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Nathan Hughes, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Ben Moon, Brad Shields, Kyle Sinckler, Jack Singleton, Billy Vunipola, Mako Vunipola, Harry Williams, Mark Wilson.
Backs: Chris Ashton, Mike Brown, Joe Cokanasiga, Elliot Daly, Ollie Devoto, Owen Farrell (captain), George Ford, Jonny May, Jack Nowell, Dan Robson, Henry Slade, Ben Te'o, Ollie Thorley, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Wallaroos captain reflects on Black Ferns’ success with sevens stars
3
Springboks flyhalf's latest injury worry
4
Initial Immanuel Feyi-Waboso injury update does not sound promising
5
Latest Comments
Agree, the team isn't really in transition anymore, that happened very early, and looks to have been completed by the Argentina loss, that they fixed the cause of that Foster type result and it didn't happen again.
Disagree with how you want to lock in the team like this. As Cantab suggests the real way this team is going to move forward now is by maximising the talent, and there are plenty of other ways the forward pack could potential be improved, so it is going to need some creative and ingenuitive coaching if ABs are going to prove good enough anymore.
Go to commentsBecause Robertson is allergic to risk-taking. Perofeta and Plummer were never once trialled at First Five-Eight, Beauden was kept at Fullback for like half the season despite having close to ten players over the year who can play that position.
Go to comments