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England squad update: One change as Cunningham-South is ruled out
By Liam Heagney
England have announced their squad for the final match week of the Guinness Six Nations, confirming that Chandler Cunningham-South will miss the round five match versus France in Lyon.
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The soon-to-be 21-year-old back-rower had played off the bench in all four of England’s matches so far in the 2024 championship.
However, having made a fine impact in this weekend’s win over Ireland, he exited on a medical cart just before the Marcus Smith drop goal finish and now won’t be available for the trip across the Channel.
His absence has resulted in a call-up for uncapped Newcastle back-rower Guy Pepper, the 21-year-old who has already joined up with the England squad at their Pennyhill Park base.
No update on the severity of Cunningham-South’s injury was provided in Sunday evening’s RFU media release. Post-game Saturday night, head coach Steve Borthwick said: “Chandler looks like he has injured his calf.
“I don’t know how bad. He certainly didn’t look like someone who is going to turn around in a week, but I have no idea how bad that is.
“Henry Slade took a bang in Scotland, worked real hard to recover from it, and took a knock today. I don’t know if it’s related so that’s why he came off. Ollie (Chessum) is okay. He made that tackle in the first half, his arm took a bit of a stinger but I don’t think it is anything worse.”
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With their dramatic 23-22 win over Ireland positioning England to finish the tournament with more wins than losses for the first time since 2020, Borthwick and co will travel to France hoping that their title chance will still be alive by kick-off time in Lyon.
The table-topping Ireland, who are four points clear, start their game at home to Scotland in Dublin three and a half hours before England get started in France, so the title race could be over by the time of the first whistle.
France defeated Wales 45-24 on Sunday in Cardiff with a bonus point, lifting them to 11 points on the table. They are still in fourth place, trailing third-place Scotland on points difference and behind second-place England who are a point better off on 12.
England squad (vs France, Saturday)
Forwards (19):
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks)
Theo Dan (Saracens)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins)
Ben Earl (Saracens)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears)
Jamie George (Saracens)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
Maro Itoje (Saracens)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
George Martin (Leicester Tigers)
Beno Obano (Bath Rugby)
Guy Pepper (Newcastle Falcons)
Ethan Roots (Exeter Chiefs)
Will Stuart (Bath Rugby)
Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby)
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Backs (17):
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Elliot Daly (Saracens)
Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints)
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs)
George Ford (Sale Sharks)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)
George Furbank (Northampton Saints)
Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby)
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints)
Will Muir (Bath Rugby)
Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Fin Smith (Northampton Saints)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins)
Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks)
Borthwick doesn’t like Tom Pearson does he, he was flying for Saints before the 6n