RFU confirms date for the England Six Nations squad announcement

The RFU have confirmed the date for the eagerly-awaited 2022 Guinness Six Nations announcement of Eddie Jones’ England squad. The Australian’s charges finished out the Autumn Nations Series in a welter of excitement, defeating the Springboks in a Twickenham epic to finish November with a 100 per cent record following victories earlier that month over Tonga and the Wallabies. 

That success had sparked hype about how England will fare in the upcoming Six Nations, the tournament where they recorded a desultory fifth-place finish last March following disappointing defeats to Scotland, Wales and Ireland. 

Jones has since overhauled his squad, seasoned players such as George Ford and the Vunipola brothers losing out to a plethora of newcomers such as Marcus Smith, Bevan Rodd and Alex Dombrandt.  

The England boss named a 34-strong squad in mid-October for the three-game Autumn Nations series that included four uncapped players and another 14 with ten or fewer caps and there will likely be great hype in the lead-up to his latest squad announcement which has been pencilled in for 10:45 am on Tuesday, January 18. 

No indication on the size of the squad was given by the RFU but it is unlikely to be as small as the 28 that Jones initially chose last January for the previous Six Nations where it was decided to keep the numbers low due to the strict bubble they were operating under at the time.

It was the smallest squad of any of the teams in the Six Nations and it hindered the chances of England who had assembled for a week’s training at St George’s ahead of that campaign’s opener against Scotland.  Jersey was used as the week-long preparatory base for England in the lead-up to the recent Autumn Nations but the plan now is to assemble in Brighton for a week of training from January 24 before switching to Pennyhill the week of the away game opener versus the Scots on February 5.  

An RFU statement read: “England will begin preparations for the 2022 Guinness Six Nations later this month. Eddie Jones will name his squad on January 18 and the group will meet in Brighton the following week (Monday, January 24) to begin training. They will then continue their preparations for their opening game against Scotland the following week at the Honda England training centre at Pennyhill Park, Bagshot.”

England’s schedule will see them travel to Italy for the round two match in Rome on February 13 before they respectively host Wales and Ireland on February 26 and March 12 at Twickenham. Their campaign will then conclude with an assignment away to France on March 19.