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Owen Farrell set to start for England after recovering from concussion
By PA
Owen Farrell is on course to start England’s autumn opener against Argentina at Twickenham on Sunday as he closes in on making a full recovery from concussion.
Farrell only has Thursday’s return to play protocol to complete after being knocked out against Exeter on October 22, placing him on the brink of being able form a midfield trio alongside Marcus Smith and Manu Tuilagi for the first time.
The Saracens playmaker took a restricted part in training on Wednesday and England are increasingly confident that he will be ready for the Pumas’ visit.
“Owen is just going through the last bits of his return to play but everything’s gone according to plan so far. He looked good in training, full of enthusiasm. Just his normal self really,” attack coach Martin Gleeson said.
England are keen to reprise the Smith-Farrell playmaking axis that was first seen last autumn only for successive ankle injuries to sideline the senior member of the attacking brains trust until the July tour to Australia.
Eddie Jones is investing in the duo with next year’s World Cup in mind, although they have fired only in glimpses as a partnership.
“Owen’s partnership with Marcus is a big part of where we want to go as a team. They are four games in together and we want to build on that this autumn,” Gleeson said.
Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and wing Jonny May have yet to be ruled out for the first of this month’s Tests but they have not taken part in full training as they recover from respective knee and elbow injuries.
Less than a fortnight ago May received oxygen on the pitch after his arm contorted into an alarming position on club duty for Gloucester against London Irish.
“He’s Jonny May! That’s what he does. His healing powers are unbelievable,” Gleeson said. “He’s in a good spot and is potentially available for this weekend, but we’re not 100 per cent sure on that yet.”
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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