England Squad announcement - Major trio return
Maro Itoje, Chris Robshaw and Jonathan Joseph have returned from injury to form part of England's 31-man training squad for the Six Nations clash with Italy on Saturday.
Saracens lock Itoje sustained knee ligament damage in 32-20 win over Ireland on February 2 and sat out the victory over France and the 21-13 loss to Wales in Cardiff.
However, with Courtney Lawes ruled out for the remainder of the competition due to a calf injury, Itoje has been drafted in to prepare for the Azzurri's visit to Twickenham.
Flanker Robshaw also returns to the fold on the back of a try-scoring display in Harlequins' 31-29 victory at Bath on Saturday.
The former England skipper sat out the November internationals due to a knee injury and has played just four matches since returning in January.
Bath wing Joseph spent nine months out with an ankle issue and, having also made his comeback in January, has appeared just three times for his club this season.
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What’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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