Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Eddie Jones explains Dylan Hartley omission

Dylan Hartley during the 2018 Six Nations match between England and Wales. Photo / Getty Images

Eddie Jones admits he does not know when captain Dylan Hartley will be fit to regain his place in the England squad for the Six Nations campaign.

ADVERTISEMENT

Hartley has a knee injury and misses the opening game with Grand Slam champions Ireland on February 2 and is likely to sit out the next game with France. He is not joining the rest of the squad on their Portugal training camp and also out injured are Jonathan Joseph and Chris Robshaw while Danny Care has lost out to Dan Robson for the third scrum-half place.

Jones said: “Unfortunately, Dylan won’t be available for the Ireland game so we won’t take him to Portugal but we are hopeful he will be back later in the series. Owen will be captain by himself and he will certainly have great support from a number of senior players.

“We haven’t see Joe Launchbury since South Africa, he has come back and had a good couple of games for Wasps and looks in good shape,” said England’s head coach.

Video Spacer

“He is an important player for us, he has played over 50 Tests. Billy has had a dreadful run of injuries, he’s also played two good games for Saracens and we’re delighted to have him back in the squad.

“We also have guys like Ellis Genge and Mako Vunipola coming back in. Genge is a good young prop and he will challenge Mako for his starting place.”

ADVERTISEMENT

There are four uncapped players in the squad with Ollie Thorley, Ben Earl, Dan Robson and Jack Singleton all included while there are also returns for Jack Clifford and Ollie Devoto.

Thorley won the World Rugby U20 Championship with England in 2016, and on his inclusion Jones said: “He is a big strong lad, he runs hard, he has got good pace and good strength, has improved his skill and understanding of the game and deserves his opportunity.

“Both Jack and Ollie (Devoto) were important members for us in 2016 and 2017, both have had difficult times with injuries and both have now come back with their clubs and played really well. Ollie is a good, strong inside centre and Jack can play six, seven or No 8.”

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 5 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

147 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING 'One of the deadliest wingers in rugby' has decided his future 'One of the deadliest wingers in rugby' has decided his future
Search