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Ollie Lawrence to miss Ireland game as Borthwick recalls 3 players
By PA
Ollie Lawrence has been ruled out of England’s final Guinness Six Nations match against Ireland because of a hamstring injury.
Lawrence sustained the injury during Saturday’s 53-10 mauling by France that registered the team’s heaviest ever defeat at Twickenham.
Guy Porter has been drafted into a 36-man training squad as centre cover but Manu Tuilagi is also available having completed his suspension for dangerous play.
Until the shattering collapse against France, Lawrence had been a success story of England’s Championship on account of blockbuster displays against Italy and Wales.
The 23-year-old was overlooked for Steve Borthwick’s Six Nations initial squad only to became a powerful presence at inside centre – at least until the current champions went on the rampage at Twickenham.
The remainder of the starting XV and bench in action against France have been retained, meaning Borthwick has so far opted against wielding the axe in response to England’s third heaviest defeat of all time.
FORWARDS
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers, 9 caps)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 99 caps)
Will Collier (Harlequins, 2 caps)
Ben Curry (Sale Sharks, 4 caps)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 13 caps)
Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby, 3 caps)
Ben Earl (Saracens, 15 caps)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 47 caps)
Jamie George (Saracens, 76 caps)
Jonny Hill (Sale Sharks, 19 caps)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 10 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 66 caps)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 18 caps)
David Ribbans (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks, 2 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 60 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 78 caps)
Jack Walker (Harlequins, 3 caps)
Jack Willis (Toulouse, 9 caps)
BACKS
Henry Arundell (London Irish, 6 caps)
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 105 caps)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 3 caps)
George Ford (Sale Sharks, 81 caps)
Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish, 2 caps)
Max Malins (Saracens, 18 caps)
Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 14 caps)
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
Cadan Murley (Harlequins, uncapped)
Guy Porter (Leicester Tigers, 4 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 55 caps)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 21 caps)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 21 caps)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 50 caps)
Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 11 caps)
Anthony Watson (Leicester Tigers, 54 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 122 caps)
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Latest Comments
Well lets hope so. England have developed a very strong kicking game and I'm all for them going to it on a regular basis to get into the right areas of the field but they need to find the right balance. They've been far too predictable and far too low risk. Tindall recently summed up my thoughts on this... “rugby is a pressure game, it's about building phases”. Against Scotland they almost never went over 2 phases, it was super weird. None of the top 4 sides are playing in this manner, I don't see where the precedent is for this staccato style of play. We've got an exceptional group of loose forwards developing, let's make use of that quick ball! Hopefully the Welsh game is a turning point and the coaches will trust the players to take a few more risks. It's not that I have anything against kicking in test matches, it's absolutely essential that we kick well but we do that already, it's the rest of the attack which has been missing. This relentless kicking isn't the way the best sides win test matches these days. Kick well, kick lots but we need to be setup to take advantage of quick ball and defensive misalignments around the halfway line and we need to build pressure by going multiphase in the 22 instead of grubber kicking it or crossfielding with such high regularity.
Go to commentsAgreed, seen far too many false dawns as an England fan and here are still far too many question marks over Borthwick and his coaching team. The Scotland and Ireland performances were still poor, even if we managed to stay on the right side of the scoreboard on one of them. France game we were fortunate but we at least played well
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