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Courtney Lawes is ruled out as England cut squad from 36 to 27

England's Courtney Lawes (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has trimmed his England squad of 36 down to 27 ahead of Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations round two match away to Italy in Rome, a group that doesn’t include Courtney Lawes for the second successive match. 

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It was only on Tuesday evening when the head coach officially confirmed the 36-strong squad he had with him in Bagshot following the completion of a training session under lights at Pennyhill Park, but that assembly has now been reduced in size by nine players. 

Aside from Lawes, who continues working through the return to play protocols following a concussion last month when playing for Northampton, Wasps duo Alfie Barbeary and Joe Launchbury, along with surprise uncapped back row call-up Tom Pearson from London Irish, have been cut from the forwards. Newcastle forward Callum Chick will train with the squad, though, during the remainder of this week’s preparations.

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Facing Goliath Trailer | Behind the scenes with Italy vs All Blacks | RugbyPass Originals

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Facing Goliath Trailer | Behind the scenes with Italy vs All Blacks | RugbyPass Originals

Five backs have also been omitted. They are Gloucester midfielder Mark Atkinson, who had been hotly tipped by pundits such as Austin Healey for selection, Northampton full-back George Furbank, wingers Louis Lynagh of Harlequins and Ollie Hassell-Collins of London Irish, and Sale scrum-half Raffi Quirke.

With Lewis Ludlam, a starter at Murrayfield last Saturday, unavailable after suffering a rib cartilage injury, England would have hoped that Lawes would have pitched up fit but his omission isn’t a great surprise.

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Jones had stated at his midday Tuesday media briefing that his skipper in the November wins over South Africa and Tonga would have to train fully on Wednesday to be in selection contention to face the Italians. A more surprising development was that the fit-again Launchbury, who was called into the squad on Tuesday for the first time since his serious knee injury with Wasps last April, was left out after just two days of training with England.

“Joe is a good Test lock,” remarked Jones on Tuesday after giving Launchbury his recall. “He is an outstanding mauler, he is a guy that is tough around the one-pass play around the ruck and he brings a lot of experience. At the moment experience is not something we have got a lot of.” If so, it is strange that Launchbury has now been excluded.

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ENGLAND SQUAD (vs Italy, Sunday)
FORWARDS (16)
Jamie Blamire (Newcastle Falcons, 5 caps)
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers, uncapped)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 32 caps)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 37 caps)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 5 caps)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 27 caps)
Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 32 caps)
Jamie George (Saracens, 62 caps)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers, 2 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 52 caps)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 4 caps)
Joe Marler (Harlequins, 75 caps)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks, 2 caps)
Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 10 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 48 caps)
Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 16 caps) 

BACKS (11)
Elliot Daly (Saracens, 53 caps)
George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 78 caps)
Max Malins (Saracens, 11 caps)
Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 8 caps)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 34 caps)
Adam Radwan (Newcastle Falcons, 2 caps)
Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 2 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 44 caps)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 6 caps)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 6 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 113 caps)

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Comments

2 Comments
D
Dave 1015 days ago

Lawes and Tuilagi. England are a different beat without them

D
David 1016 days ago

Jones turns slower than a 1000 tons tanker, what's the point of playing Ben Youngs against Italy?

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J
JW 46 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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