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England have made just one change to their team to play Ireland on Saturday at Aviva Stadium in round five of the Guinness Six Nations following their 23-20 home win last weekend over France. With Henry Slade pulling up with a calf injury at training on Monday, coach Eddie Jones has tweaked his midfield and left the Exeter player out.
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Rather than promote regular club midfielder Ollie Lawrence from the bench, Jones has instead opted to put Elliot Daly in at outside centre alongside skipper Owen Farrell.
A regular Test full-back selection, Daly was out of luck the previous week when Jones made three changes going into their round four game versus the French, giving Max Malins his first-ever Test level start in place of the benched Daly and calling Luke Cowan-Dickie and Charlie Ewels into the pack.
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Daly’s only previous start at outside centre for England came in a November 2016 win over South Africa, his other 44 starts being at full-back or wing. His recall this week is the only alteration to the XV for Dublin and his place on the bench goes to Joe Marchant, who was called into the squad at the start of the week. Marchant’s inclusion is the only bench change.
The 24-year-old Harlequins player, who had a stint in 2020 playing Super Rugby for the Blues in Auckland, has four England caps. His last appearance at Test level was off the bench last November in the Autumn Nations Cup win over Georgia.
Eddie Jones has named his side to face Ireland in the final round of the #GuinnessSixNations ☘️🏴
Henry Slade is unavailable with a calf injury and Joe Marchant is named among the replacements.
Watch live on @ITV, kick off at 16:45 GMT ⤵️#WearTheRose @O2sports
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) March 18, 2021
Jones said: “This is our most important game of the tournament and we want to finish well. We are anticipating a hard, tough game against Ireland and we have picked this team to cope with that. We want to take it to Ireland physically and play the rugby we want to play.”
ENGLAND (vs Ireland, Saturday)
15. Max Malins (Bristol Bears, 7 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 50 caps)
13. Elliot Daly (Saracens, 51 caps)
12. Owen Farrell (Saracens, 92 caps) (C)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 65 caps)
10. George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 76 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 108 caps)
1. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 66 caps)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 30 caps)
3. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 43 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 47 caps)
5. Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 20 caps)
6. Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons, 22 caps)
7. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 32 caps)
8. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 60 caps)
FINISHERS
16. Jamie George (Saracens, 58 caps)
17. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 27 caps)
18. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 11 caps)
19. Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 8 caps)
20. Ben Earl (Bristol Bears, 12 caps)
21. Dan Robson (Wasps, 11 caps)
22. Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors, 5 caps)
23. Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 4 caps)
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Odogwu went in uncapped with England in January and is still without a first Test run all these weeks later#SixNations #IREvENG
https://t.co/HDLhqxgBBV— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 17, 2021
